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Art Installation at Kuwait Book Fair Protesting Censorship Removed

The 2018 Kuwait International Book Fair, which opened November 14, ends this Saturday:

More than 500 publishers participated in the exhibition, according to organizers. But many books were not permitted at the annual fair: Saad al-Anzi, who heads the fair, told the AFP the information ministry had banned 948 books from among those screened for the book fair. More than 4000 books have been banned in Kuwait in the last five years.

The battle over the literary censorship continues to escalate. The anti-censorship art installation by Mohammad Sharaf near the fairgrounds, which represented the banned books as tombstones, was reportedly removed on Thursday afternoon by the “appropriate authorities.”

As ArabLit contributor Abrar Alshammari observed, “It took the Kuwaiti authorities three hours to remove this visual installation, set up at the annual book fair, protesting censorship of books. One thing they’re great at is being masters of irony…respond to a critique of censorship with more censorship.”

https://twitter.com/abrards/status/1065673107774558208

Read more:

Book Banning in Kuwait: How, Why, & What Comes Next

‘Literary Massacre in Kuwait’: The State of Book Banning