(page from Words Without Borders, translation by Humphrey Davies)
Last year I wrote a post called cartoonist in trouble!, about the arrest of Magdy El Shafee, who wrote a graphic novel deemed by the Egyptian authorities to be indecent or blasphemous. (Perhaps coincidentally, it was also the first adult graphic novel to be written in Arabic. It has the unexceptional contemporary urban title of Metro.) His young publisher, Mohamed Al Sharkawy, was also arrested.
Think of that the next time you’re in Waterstone’s, perusing your Maus and Persepolis, or better yet your Superman. We’re hardly in Penguin territory here.
The trial was set for March 28 and – from what little I can glean from the Arabic blogosphere and Google’s amusing translation service – it is now postponed until April 4th. If anyone reading this has any more information than this…
Surprised by the news and I called up the publisher, “Metro” for the trial of “Metro” on Saturday at a time when we experience intimate, resulting in the exhibition dazzles all candor and spontaneity – you can view it in the center of the country Goethe – so I’m satisfied with what satisfied Nevsyo Aflho Leave it to the judiciary to resolve the matter fully, we uphold this Albuldla of corrupt officials and not security and not oligopolists we publish and the Shining and the judiciary to settle the matter on Saturday prayers on behalf
…they might like to drop it in the comments. I know there must be something more cogent to say. And you have to wonder if it’s really true that Jack Nicholson is going to go and hex the prosecutors.
4 Comments
April 2, 2009 at 8:18 pm
http://penatlas.blogspot.com/2009/04/digital-democracy-in-arab-world-good.html (you’ll see that Baroque is cited twice)
I don’t think Jack Nicholson is going in, but Marwa Rakha — author of the Poison Tree, blogger and agitator extraordinaire — is giving the case a lot of coverage on her blogs.
And some more background:
“By some accounts, the raid was the police’s revenge on legendary publisher and political activist Mohamed el Sharkawi, whose complaints about his treatment by police during an earlier arrest had been widely covered. al-Shafei’s novel had already been widely sold and critically praised, but police told bookstores to return all copies and even delete the title from their computerised stock lists. The novel has been charged with offence to public morals and the use of colloquial language. ”
http://penatlas.org/online/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=16
April 2, 2009 at 11:58 pm
[...] Comics Reporter, Baroque in Hackney, The Middle East Times, Al Dostoor, Al Badeel, and Youm 7 showed their consolidation with the [...]
April 3, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Thanks very much for this, Sophie, I hadn’t seen it. I’m really surprised that the media and the blogosphere have not responded more to this story & I’m really glad if my own offerings have made a difference. Thanks for the link.
April 6, 2009 at 7:51 am
[...] Comics Reporter [in], Baroque in Hackney [in], The Middle East Times [in], Al Dostoor [ar], Al Badeel [ar] e Youm 7 [ar] hanno dimostrato [...]