As Mona Kareem writes in her introduction to this interview with Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji for The Millions, he has been many types of writer already: “an anonymous blogger, a cultural journalist, […]
This panel aims to address the question of how resistance and trauma are conceived and practiced in prison literature in North Africa in the years leading to and following the […]
Join this discussion hosted by MENA Prison Forum on “Swaying Bodies”, a novella by Ahmed Abdul-Halim, with illustrations by Dima Daly.
“Farewell to the prison bars and walls / Farewell to friends and our nighttime talks / when you divvied up the moonlight amongst us.”
“Around a century later, in Cairo, during the obscenity trial of my novel Using Life, the assistant attorney for the prosecution challenged my defense attorney and the respected literary figures we had called as witnesses to read a section of my novel out loud.”
“I thought these are crazy days. I have been in prison for a long time, and I have no idea what’s going on. Maybe they’re fabricating a case against Nagib Mahfouz or his ghost.”
