SUBSCRIBE
IOS ANDROID KINDLE
Why we find it impossible to talk about birth, death and marriage
Contents: Birth, marriage and death
Podcast: Talking birth, marriage and death taboos
ISSUE: VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Birth, marriage and death

What we are afraid to talk about

The winter 2018 Index on Censorship magazine looks at why different societies stop people discussing the most significant events in life. In China, as Karoline Kan reports, women were forced for many years to have just one child and now they are being pushed to have two, but it is not something to talk about. In South Korea Steven Borowiec finds men have taken to social media to condemn a new film adaptation of a novel about motherhood. Irene Caselli describes the consequences in Latin America of preventing discussion about contraception and sexually transmitted infections. Joan McFadden digs into attitudes to gay marriage in the Hebrides, where she grew up, and interviews the Presbyterian minister who demonstrated against Lewis Pride.  We have an original play from Syrian dramatist Liwaa Yazji about fear and violent death. While flash fiction writer Neema Komba imagines a Tanzanian bride challenging the marriage committee over her wedding cake. Finally Nobel-prize-winning author Svetlana Alexievich tells us that she is sanguine about the mortal dangers of chronicling and criticising post-Soviet Russia. Editorial | Full contents | Podcast

FEATURING

Svetlana Alexievich
Author
Svetlana Alexievich
Author

Svetlana Alexievich won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015.  The Belarusian author is celebrated for her writing about the post-Soviet world. In her books The Unwomanly Face of War, Boys in Zinc and Secondhand Time she chronicles the experience of ordinary people

Close
Mark Haddon
Novelist
Mark Haddon
Novelist

Mark Haddon is an author, illustrator and screenwriter who has written fifteen books for children and won two BAFTAs. His bestselling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, won seventeen literary prizes

Close
Yuri Herrera
Novelist
Yuri Herrera
Novelist

Yuri Herrera is a bestselling Mexican writer currently based in the USA. His first novel Trabajos del reino won the 2003 Binacional de Novela/Border of Words and made Herrera one of the most famous writers in Latin America

Close

Editorial: Taboo topics

Why we find it impossible to talk about birth, death and marriage

Vital moments during our lifetimes are complicated by taboos about what we can and can’t talk about, and we end up making the wrong decisions just because we don’t get the full picture, says Rachael Jolley in the winter 2018 issue of Index on Censorship magazine

December 2018

Winter Index on Censorship magazine

Contents: With contributions from Liwaa Yazji, Karoline Kan, Jieun Baek, Neema Komba, Bhekisisa Mncube, Yuri Herrera, Peter Carey, Mark Haddon

December 2018

Magazine Extra: Podcast

What are we afraid to talk about? Author Jieun Baek, law lecturer Sharon Thompson, columnist Edward Lucas talk birth, death and marriage taboos.

December 2018

Magazine Extra

Sex and pregnancy continue to be taboo subjects around the world as a special report in Index on Censorship magazine shows. Fictional beliefs around sex education and reproductive health, combined with a lack of resources, are leading to sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies and problems or death during pregnancy.

Student reading list

Art has been used as a form of protest during times of crisis throughout history. It is a popular and, at times, effective platform to express opinions about societal or governmental problems, particularly when other forms of protest are not available. Protest art includes performances, site-specific installations, graffiti and street art.

Breaking taboos

Authors Xinran and Emile Pine and Gabby Edlin, CEO of Bloody Good Period, tackled the tricky topics of the taboo and (self-)censorship when it comes to some of our most human experiences at the launch of Index on Censorship’s latest magazine.

SUBSCRIBE TO
INDEX ON CENSORSHIP MAGAZINE

Every subscription helps Index’s work around the world

 SUBSCRIBE

ALL ISSUES

VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Crown confidential: How Britain's royals censor their records
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
The beautiful game? Qatar, football and freedom
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
The battle for Ukraine: Artists, journalists and dissidents respond
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Index at 50: The battles won, lost and currently raging
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Playing With Fire: How theatre is resisting the oppressor
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Climate of fear: The silencing of the planet’s indigenous peoples
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
Whistleblowers: The lifeblood of democracy
VOLUME 47.04 WINTER 2018
China: A century of silencing dissent
BACK TO TOP
© 2022 Index on Censorship | Privacy / Cookie Policy