Writers boycott Egypt book fair

2001-01-10 20:44

Cairo - The Cairo International Book Fair, the largest and perhaps the most prestigious in the Mid-East, will be a celebration of writing without writers if angry Egyptian intellectuals have their way.

Writers and editors said on Wednesday scores signed a petition calling for a boycott of the government-organised fair after the government pulled a controversial novel off the bookshelves and fired the civil servant responsible for its publication.

Angered by what he calls a "scandal" and a "crisis for culture in Egypt", writer Mohammed al-Bussatti said he would join the boycott campaign launched at a meeting on Tuesday. Al-Bussati added he had resigned from his post as editor of the Ministry of Culture series that included the novel that caused the stir, "Before and After".

"We are not only boycotting the book fair, but all the activities of the Culture Ministry. It is becoming a ministry that is anti-culture and anti-intellectuals," al-Bussatti said.

A boycott could affect readings and panel discussions at the two-week fair scheduled to start on 24 January. But Mona Anis, book editor Al Ahram weekly newspaper, said it was unlikely to affect attendance at an event that has become central to the fair - a forum in which Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak participates in an off-the-record, wide-ranging chat with intellectuals.

Anis attended the meeting at which the boycott petition was discussed, but didn't sign it. She questioned whether it could be effective.

"Something more viable needs to be formulated," she said.

Cairo prides itself on being a centre of Arab culture, and speech is less restricted here than in most of the rest of the region. But Islamic fundamentalists occasionally challenge the work of writers and other artists, sparking controversies like the one swirling around "Before and After", the first novel of little known author Tawfiq Abdel Rahman.

A member of parliament representing the Muslim Brotherhood last week called on Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni to appear for questioning about Abdel Rahman's sexually explicit novel. The Brotherhood called the novel obscene.

The newly elected parliament houses the largest number of Islamist legislators the country has seen in more than a decade. Seventeen Muslim Brothers were elected to the parliament in the October-November elections, making them the largest single opposition bloc in parliament.

Intellectuals fear culture will be the scapegoat as the government seeks to avoid confrontation with the Islamist bloc in the parliament.

Predominantly Muslim Egypt has grown more conservative over the past three decades as a result of an Islamic revival that is partly supported by the government. To rob Muslim militant groups of their appeal to the masses, President Hosni Mubarak's government has often gone to some length to project an Islamic image. It has tolerated or endorsed moves to ban films, TV programmes or literary works containing explicit sexual scenes or material thought to be irreverent.

Minister of Culture Hosni, who has held the post for 14 years, issued a statement on Tuesday saying that his ministry will not publish "any book or novel that ... contradicts social mores and morals".

An independent weekly newspaper ran an altered photograph on Wednesday showing the minister in a beard and wearing a turban, the look associated with fundamentalist Islamists. The French- and Italian-educated Hosni, a painter, usually wears designer suits and is clean-shaven.

- SAPA