2 January 2025
The Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression (AFTE) condemns the General Egyptian Book Organization’s (GEBO) decision to ban ElMaraya for Culture and Arts from participating in the 2025 Cairo International Book Fair, without giving any reason. The move reflects the continuation of the intensive security and censorship targeting of ElMaraya over the recent years with the aim of hindering it from exercising its cultural role. AFTE considers the decision a flagrant violation of the right to freedom of creativity and artistic expression guaranteed by the Egyptian constitution and international conventions. It calls on GEBO to quash the decision, enable ElMaraya to participate in the book fair without any obstacles, and to immediately stop targeting it.
ElMaraya said in a statement that it was surprised that its account on the book fair’s website was closed, and thus did not receive permission to pay the fees for the rent of its pavilion at the exhibition, as is the case with other publishing houses. This came despite the fact that ElMaraya has registered its participation as scheduled and paid all due fees to the exhibition administration since 2017. The GEBO’s decision will have financial and marketing implications that will affect the future of the ElMaraya and its ability to continue.
The violations that ElMaraya has faced in recent years indicate the political targeting it has been subjected to, with the aim of liquidating and besieging it. Over the past two years, ElMaraya’s headquarters was raided twice, many of its books, devices, documents and financial files were confiscated, and some of its employees were detained. These practices impose restrictions on independent cultural organizations, especially through the use of artwork violation and tax evasion as pretexts to avoid suspicions about the political motives behind targeting these organizations.
A security force that included officers from the Abdeen police station, the Censorship of Artistic Works police, and the Anti-Tax Evasion police raided ElMaraya’s headquarters on 27 July, after the conclusion of a seminar organized by the company and the departure of all those present except for one of the administrative assistants, who was arrested. The force searched the place for at least five hours, seized 217 books, a computer, and four boxes containing financial documents, and arrested an administrative staff member, who was released hours later.
The moves against ElMaraya during 2024 come as punishment for its attempt to issue the second edition of a collection of poems titled “Curly”, which is authored by poet and opposition political activist Ahmed Douma, and its announcement that it would organize a seminar and a signing ceremony in the presence of Douma, which the company had cancelled later after pro-government preachers launched a campaign against Douma, accusing him of infidelity. The company, however, said it had cancelled the ceremony for out-of-hand reasons.
AFTE affirms that the ban on participation in the book fair is not a new violation. Rather, it is something the fair’s management has been doing systematically in recent years, without giving reasons. Meanwhile, AFTE attributes the ban to political and security reasons in the first place, as evidenced by similar bans it documented during the last two book fair events. In this regard, AFTE released two reports, in which it documented the exclusion of popular publishing houses from participating in the fair. These included Tanmia, which announced earlier that it would participate in this year’s book fair after several years of ban.
The ban is carried out in various ways, most notably through the refusal by the electronic system to open a space for a publishing house to book a pavilion in the exhibition, which is the second stage in electronic registration via the fair’s website after completing all the required papers and paying the specified fees through the space designated for that on the website.
The targeting of ElMaraya and other cultural institutions comes in a general context in which the Egyptian authorities – through their various agencies – suppress the right to freedom of expression in general, and freedom of creativity and artistic expression in particular. These policies had a significant role in the deterioration of the cultural climate in Egypt in recent years, which – apparently – will not stop without confronting such practices, which requires political will that AFTE believes is still absent.
