JEDDAH, 9 February 2006 — Contrary to rumors, the Syrian publishing house, Dar Al-Mada, has not been banned from the Riyadh Book Fair, which opens on Feb. 22.
Yahya Sabea, a Saudi writer and head of the organizing committee at the Ministry of Education, told Arab News that Dar Al-Mada would participate in the fair in spite of publishing a book that has been banned in the Kingdom.
Sabea said that the ministry had given orders that non-Saudi publishers must have priority at the fair since their books may not be available in Saudi bookstores.
The rumors spread as a result of information leaked to the local media by the Ministry of Information and Culture, which is responsible for approving books that enter the Kingdom, that it would not admit the latest books by some Saudi writers.
Many Saudi writers are obliged to publish their books outside the Kingdom and, as a result, Saudis have a limited knowledge of what their own artistic colleagues are writing.
Over the past three years, however, book lovers have been fortunate enough to find at book fairs the very books that were not available in local bookstores. Some books are found one year and banned the next, as there are no clear rules and regulations.
A source told Arab News that the following books would be banned from the fair: “Immortality”, by Abdu Khal, “Paradise Scent”, by Turki Al-Hamad and “The Terrorist 20”, by Abdullah Thabet. The three novels were published in Syria and London in Arabic and address subjects perceived as controversial in Saudi society.
“The Terrorist 20”, published by Dar Al-Mada, is a fictionalized memoir about Thabet’s journey from Islamic extremist to liberal poet.
“Immortality” and “Paradise Scent” are published by London’s Dar Al-Saqi, which will also attend the fair but not offer these titles to fairgoers.
