Pussy Riot member joins campaign to reverse prison book ban

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the Russian punk rock band  Pussy Riot has given heartfelt support to the campaign looking to overturn a policy banning books for UK prisoners.

Tolokonnikova is among several new international artists supporting the English PEN and Howard League for Penal Reform backed campaign, and has written strongly of her own experiences of incarceration.

Three members of the band were imprisoned in 2012 over charges of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred". And Tolokonnikova tells how her 21 month period behind bars was enlivened by her access to books:

Books make up your entire world when you are a prisoner. Because you have books you know that every day you spend behind bars is not a day spent in vain.

In a letter posted on the English PEN website, Tolokonnikova also writes, "Prison is probably one of the most text-centric places in this, our contemporary reality."

The campaign has fostered international support from Europe, Africa and South-east Asia, and among those joining the campaign is Belarusian journalist Iryna Khalip.

Khalip was detained and charged for organising protests against the  Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko, following his 2010 re-election. She has likened a lack of books to a lack of air.

WhenI was arrested and brought to a prison cell I noticed almost automatically that there were books on one of the shelves...‘It’s possible to live here,’  I thought,  ‘there is something to read.’

Khalip adds in her letter that in prison books "become the air. Your body needs air to breathe. No books — you cannot breathe. And if you cannot breathe there is no life."

To find out more about the campiagn to overturn a ban on books in British prisons, visit English PEN's website, here.