Novelist Ahmed Naji yesterday began a two-year jail sentence – the maximum allowed under Egyptian law – for "violating public decency" by writing about "transient lust and fleeting pleasure". His trial was the latest in a long line of morality-related cases instigated by individuals and supported by the authorities.

Naji's imprisonment is especially weird because his book, Istikhdam al-Haya ("Using Life") had been printed in Lebanon in 2014 and approved for sale in Egypt by the Egyptian censors. An extract from the book – in fact the chapter that gave rise to his prosecution – had also appeared in a state-owned publication, Akhbar al-Adab ("Literature News").

A lawyer named Hani Saleh Tawfik claimed that while reading this extract "his heartbeat fluctuated, his blood pressure dropped and he became severely ill". Tawfik then filed a lawsuit complaining that it had not only harmed his own health and morals but also the morals of Egypt as a whole.

The Egyptian website, Mada Masr, summarises the offending chapter as follows:

"It recounts a normal day in the life of the 23-year-old Bassem spent in the alienating city of Cairo, a city that never sleeps ... Bassem finds consolation among his friends, with whom he spends the night smoking hashish, drinking alcohol, listening to music and talking about sexual fetishes. This group appears to him as the only gift he has received from the capital. 

"Bassem spends the day after in the greener and calmer neighbourhood of Zamalek with his beloved Lady Spoon, as he likes to call her because of the earrings she wears. She is described as an Egyptian Christian, educated abroad and nine years older than himself, who has decided to live the rest of her life in Egypt but has lost faith in men her age. 

"The island of Zamalek and the comfort of her house are like a shelter inside the unstable city. The chapter culminates with a graphic and poetic description of their sexual intercourse. It ends with Bassem surrounded again by his friends, staring at the sunset from the top of Moqattam hills."

For those prepared to risk heart palpitations, an English translation of the offending extract can be read here.

A series of court hearings began last November, with the prosecution demanding the maximum penalty on the grounds that "we live in a society that does not accept publishing such language in a state-owned newspaper".

The defence team responded to that by producing examples of the same language, and even stronger language, from early Arabic and Islamic literature – including the hadith (words and deeds attributed to the Prophet Muhammad).

The fact that the offending chapter is narrated in the first person also seems to have caused confusion in the minds of the authorities. Discussing the case in an article last November, Marcia Lynx Qualey of the Arablit website wrote:

"The prosecutor is dealing with it as if it's my own confession," Naji said in a phone interview. The prosecutor has already referred to the characters in the novel as though they were real people, Naji said. Because drug use is discussed, the prosecutor has threatened that he could add charges against Naji for "dealing with hash".

In January, Naji and Tarek al-Taher, the editor of Akhbar al-Adab (who had also been prosecuted) were both acquitted but the prosecution appealed. Yesterday, Bulaq Criminal Court overturned the earlier verdict, imposing a two-year sentence on Naji and fining Taher LE10,000 ($1,260) – again, the maximum allowed under Egyptian law – for failing in his editorial responsibilities.

Article 65 of the Egyptian constitution says: "Freedom of thought and opinion is guaranteed. Every individual has the right to express an opinion and to disseminate it verbally, in writing or as an illustration, or by any other means of expression or publication."

However, as lawyer Mahmoud Othman has pointed out, "There is a culture that gives the right to citizens to take artists to court and the law supports this ... This kills creativity and doesn't protect the artist, who is by default supposed to go outside of socially constructed lines and even break boundaries."
  
   
Posted by Brian Whitaker
Sunday, 21 February 2016