Arabic-Language Graphic Novel At Heart Of Cairo Publishing House Raid



The journalist Hossam el Hamalawy reports that unidentified Egyptian officials have raided the publishing house of Mohamed al Sharqawi and confiscated all copies of the comic book Metro, by the cartoonist Magdy el Shafee. According to the report, which seems to draw on an interview with the publisher's fiancee, the officers conducting the raid forced the publishing house's accountant to sign a pledge to notify authorities about any returned copies and hand them over to the police. The book was termed as running contrary to public morals.

According to this post at another blog, the publisher, his fiancee, the cartoonist and the accountant are all to appear in front a government official about the affair. Sharqawi was already in custody after an arrest April 6 related to his backing a strike.

Metro has been called the first Arabic-language graphic novel. An excerpt of the comic can be found here.

(I'm posting this on Monday afternoon, and it looks like it just hit the English-language wire services.)

thanks to Ethan Heitner for the tip.
 
posted 8:20 am PST | Permalink
 

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