How ICORN, a Norway-based network of safe cities, is helping the persecuted

ICORN is like a vessel. It takes a troubled writer, artist or journalist from the heated pot and gives them a chance to live a normal life, says Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury

A young Asian man strings a fretless instrument, strumming effortlessly as a soft, sweet sound tumbles out of his hands and fills up the tiny cubicle where a small group has gathered to listen to him. Hamid Sakhizada, a musician from Afghanistan, does not look up until his fingers have teased a lilting melody out of the dambora, an instrument that looks much like the ektara that the Bauls (a community of wandering minstrels) play in India and Bangladesh.

Sakhizada is far from home. At the Frankfurt International Book Fair, where he is playing to a small audience inside its red