On Saturday at the International Book Fair in Tunis, there were conflicting views on whether censorship had returned to Tunisia in light of recent events. The withdrawal of an essay that criticized President Kais Saied and the subsequent closure of the stand of the publishing house that released it sparked a heated debate among attendees.
On Friday, security officers had seized all copies on sale and closed the stand of “La Maison du Livre”, a major Tunisian publisher, arguing a “possession of the unauthorized book.
Kamel Riahi presents his essay as a political work, a novel that depicts Kais Saied as a Frankenstein-like figure. According to Riahi, Saied was elected by capitalizing on the anger and frustration of a disillusioned people who had grown disappointed with the system in place since the 2011 Revolution, the first of the Arab Spring.
Despite his initial enthusiasm for the project, the publisher later backtracked, expressing regret for the “volatile language” used in the book. The publisher insisted that the decision to withdraw the book was not an act of censorship, but rather a necessary procedural step.
