{"id":31956,"date":"2016-02-26T09:04:28","date_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/egyptian-intellectuals-campaign-against-jailing-of-novelist\/"},"modified":"2016-02-26T09:04:28","modified_gmt":"2016-02-26T17:04:28","slug":"egyptian-intellectuals-campaign-against-jailing-of-novelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/egyptian-intellectuals-campaign-against-jailing-of-novelist\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian intellectuals campaign against jailing of novelist"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAIRO \u2014<\/strong> Egyptian writers, artists and film-makers have launched a public campaign for greater freedom of creativity and expression following the jailing of a novelist on charges of violating \u201cpublic modesty\u201d through his writing.<\/p>\n

The campaign, in solidarity with author Ahmed Naji, launched Thursday a series of video messages from intellectuals in support of creative freedom.<\/p>\n

In the first video, well-known Egyptian scriptwriter Medhat El Adl said the sentence against novelist Ahmed Naji came as an \u201cextreme shock\u201d to writers and artists, and expressed concern for the future of art in Egypt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this is how it is, my published novels contain things that would put me in prison too,\u201d said best-selling author Alaa al-Aswany, adding that he has signed petitions, along with hundreds from the field, requesting Naji be freed.<\/p>\n

Naji\u2019s detention this month hit the Egypt\u2019s artistic and intellectual community hard as it followed recent sentences handed to the TV presenter and researcher Islam Behery, who is serving a year-long prison sentence for \u201cdefaming religious symbols\u201d and the writer Fatma Naoot, who has appealed a three-year sentence for defaming Islam.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are many, and our voice is rightfully loud; we have three hostages taken by the state,\u201d said author Mahmoud el-Wardany at a conference Wednesday discussing ways to support the creative scene. \u201cI ask that the pressure be very strong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The growing movement by Egyptian intellectuals protesting the cases also includes Culture Minister Helmy el-Namnam and two former culture ministers, members of the committee that wrote Egypt\u2019s current constitution, and the Egyptian Publishers Association.<\/p>\n

Several state-owned artistic publications were issued with their front pages either blank with just a few words expressing support for free speech, or with portraits of Naji.<\/p>\n

A new satirical page was launched on Facebook mocking the idea of violating someone\u2019s \u201cmodesty\u201d and posting drawings of explicit material from ancient Egypt and Arab heritage.<\/p>\n

Rights lawyers and activists say cases filed by the public prosecution against writers and thinkers for issues related to \u201cvirtue\u201d or religion have spiked under the rule of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who has called for religious reforms to combat extremism.<\/p>\n

As an army chief, el-Sissi led the popular overthrow of former Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in 2013 amid mass protests against his rule. Egyptian artists and writers were among Morsi\u2019s most outspoken critics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who were in your place before you have withered away because of similar actions, and the same way of thinking,\u201d prominent TV host Youssef el-Hosseiny said in his show earlier this month, an implicit warning that el-Sissi cannot afford to alienate Egypt\u2019s artists and intellectuals.<\/p>\n

Culture Minister Helmy El-Namnam attended a conference Thursday supporting Naji, the third conference held to discuss the novelist\u2019s sentence in as many days.<\/p>\n

Naji\u2019s case trial stems from a complaint filed by a private citizen and taken up by the prosecution after Akhbar al-Adab magazine published an excerpt from Naji\u2019s novel, \u201cThe Use of Life,\u201d in August 2014. The excerpt contains explicit descriptions of sexual acts and hashish use by the characters.<\/p>\n

Naji\u2019s lawyers and the arts community have argued that the law in question, which prohibits publishing anything that \u201cviolates public modesty,\u201d is unconstitutional. Egypt\u2019s constitution states that artists, writers, and other creative individuals should not be imprisoned for their work. Naji said his book, which was printed in Beirut, was approved by Egyptian censors, and has been available in local bookstores.<\/p>\n

The author was initially acquitted but after the case garnered widespread media coverage prosecutors appealed the verdict, and in the latest ruling he received the maximum penalty of two years imprisonment.<\/p>\n

The appeals court also ordered the editor-in-chief of Egypt\u2019s top literary magazine, Tarek el-Taher, to pay a 10,000-Egyptian pound ($1,277) fine for publishing the excerpt.<\/p>\n

Naji\u2019s defense team says they will appeal the verdict at Egypt\u2019s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAIRO \u2014 Egyptian writers, artists and film-makers have launched a public campaign for greater freedom of creativity and expression following the jailing of a novelist on charges of violating \u201cpublic modesty\u201d through his writing. The campaign, in solidarity with author Ahmed Naji, launched Thursday a series of video messages from intellectuals in support of creative […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[65],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-nation-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31956"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}