According to Nouran Fahmy at Daily News Egypt, censorship of Al Aswany began in June 2014 after the author was accused of treason for criticizing Sisi’s presidential campaign (not-so-coincidentally, Sisi succeeded became president in June 2014). Banned from official media outlets, The Guardian reports that Al Aswany has continued his work as a public intellectual by “stirring debate and propounding his views on post-2011 Egypt” during monthly seminars in Cairo and Alexandria. The Guardian‘s Marcia Lynx Qualey reports that the cancellation comes a year after Al Aswany was formally banned from appearing on all state-run media, as well as forbidden from publishing his weekly column in the Egyptian newspaper Al Masry Al Youm. In what appears to be an expanding crackdown on dissenting voices, the government has forced bestselling novelist Alaa Al Aswany, author of The Yacoubian Building, to cancel a public seminar titled “Conspiracy Theory: Between Reality and Illusion.” Earlier this year, MobyLives wrote about Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s efforts to purge mosque libraries of “any book, irrespective of its author or publishing house, that contradicts the teachings of Islam.” Now, it seems Sisi has escalated his censorship efforts.
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