The racy ‘sex and drugs’ novel that landed an Egyptian author in jail for 2 years

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The racy ‘sex and drugs’ novel that landed an Egyptian author in jail for 2 years

It was the latest in a series of rulings against artistic works or speech deemed offensive to Islam or values in the overwhelmingly conservative country

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 3:04pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 21 February, 2016, 3:04pm

The Washington Post

Egyptian author Ahmed Naji, centre background, was sentenced to two years in jail after being initially acquitted by another court. Photo: AP

“What do young people in their twenties do in Cairo?” asks Bassam, the narrator of Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji’s novel The Use of Life.

In the novel the characters smoke cannabis, have sex and wander the city.

In real life, the 30-year-old author of this novel with sci-fi elements is now behind bars.

In August 2014, Akhbar al-Adab (News of Literature), an Egyptian literary magazine affiliated with government-owned al-Akhbar newspaper, published an excerpt from the sixth chapter of Naji’s novel.

It depicts a surreal drug-fuelled party and ends with the narrator having sex with an older woman.

The book, which is printed in Beirut, had been approved by Egyptian censors in a process typical for all imported books. But after the excerpt was published, one reader, Hani Tawfik, filed a lawsuit complaining to the public prosecutor that the excerpt caused his “blood pressure to fall” and made him physically ill.

A trial followed in November 2015 in which it was claimed that Naji’s work “offended public morals” and was “spreading licentiousness.” He was declared innocent by the court earlier this year.

The public prosecutor however reopened the case and on Saturday an appeals court sentenced Naji to two years in prison and fined the magazine’s editor, Tarek el-Taher, 10,000 Egyptian pounds (US$1,277). It’s the maximum penalty for a misdemeanour of this kind.

“I’m surprised,” said Mahmoud Othman, Naji’s lawyer. “The prosecution used the exact same argument in the initial trial and yet he was declared guilty. This is unconstitutional. Clause 67 of the constitution protects all artists from imprisonment. We intend to appeal.”

This is not the first time an Egyptian author has been under fire for his work. In 2013, writer Karam Saber was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “contempt for religion.” In 2008, comic book writer Magdy el-Shafee was fined and had his graphic novel Metro banned on charges similar to those against Naji. It was republished in 2012.

Gamal Eid, director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, a prominent Egyptian nongovernmental organisation, said that the latest wave of repressive measures is “the worst I’ve seen in 30 years.” Many other local human rights organisations and public figures joined him in their condemnation of the sentence on social media.