Algerian publishing house shuts down after book controversy

Novel in question is causing stir online for perceived inappropriate content

Algerian writer Inaam Bayoud and her novel 'Houaria' have been attacked online. Photo: Mohamed Hadji / Facebook

Algerian Arabic publishing house MIM Edition announced on Tuesday that it will be suspending business after online backlash over an award-winning novel that was vaguely criticised for perceived inappropriate content.

“We announce that MIM closed its doors effective immediately in the face of the wind and the fire,” the publishing house said in a statement.

“We were nothing but advocates of peace and love, and we sought nothing but to spread that.”

Houaria, by Algerian writer Inaam Bayoud, which has claimed last Tuesday the prestigious Assia Djebar literary Grand Prize, is the novel at the centre of this controversy.

Algerian social media users have called the book "indecent" and say it contained words and expressions from the Algerian Arabic Darija dialect that are considered vulgar and inappropriate.

MIM Edition or Dar MIM in Arabic is a renowned Algiers-based publisher that was established by editor Assia Ali Moussa in 2007.

It has since supported young Algerian women by publishing novels, poetry, plays, and literary and philosophical research.

After the online uproar about the novel, several Algerian intellectuals including journalists and literary critics have rallied to express their support to the author and publisher, drawing attention to the double standards that women face in Algerian society.

“The Inaam Bayoud affair highlights in broad terms the hypocrisy of a part of the people who absolutely do not want to face their contradictions under the cover of a sometimes overrated bigotry,” Algerian veteran journalist Hassan Moali said on his Facebook page.

“The chain of reactions and the sip of violence and hatred against the author and her novel El Houaria is confined within an intellectual misery … and as if it was by “chance” that the incriminated author is a woman.

"The publishing house belongs to a woman and even the literary prize bears the name of a woman [Assia Djebar],” he added.

Literary critic Amina Belaala, who is also a member of the Assia Djebar Grand Prize jury, denied to AFP the existence of any profanity or any expressions that could be deemed offensive towards Algerians.

“We did not see in those few words any affront to morality, religion or modesty,” Ms Belaala said.

She criticised in a Facebook post those who have rushed to call the novel indecent and erotic after reading only a few pages, drawing attention to the exquisite ability of the author in her “precise narrative and character construction.”

“The novelist was able to achieve these standards and write a different text that dealt with a critical stage in Algeria’s history by drawing the diaries of a social group living in poverty and marginalisation,” Ms Belaala said.

“Unfortunately, those who claim to defend values by condemning an imaginary character are defending ideologies against art, and it has been confirmed through this confusion that the hypocritical intellectual only wants hypocritical literature.”

The novel tells the story of a female fortune teller named Houaria – a very famous name in the western Algerian district of Oran – whose clients include people from different social classes who visit her seeking advice on their most intimate secrets.

Bayoud used her character to tell these people’s stories and reflect on the intricate layers of Algerian society.