Ire as MP calls Mahfouz’s literature ‘indecent’

Cairo: A member of Egypt’s parliament has accused the literature of late Nobel laureate Naguib Mahfouz of “violating public decency”.

The disparaging remark was made this week by MP Abul Maaty Mustafa at a parliamentary debate on amending a law on publishing offences.

“Naguib Mahfouz deserves punishment, but no criminal case was filed against him back then,” Mustafa, a legal expert, said.

Later, Mustafa said that his criticism was targeted at films adapted from Mahfouz’s novels, alleging they contain “immoral scenes”.

Mahfouz died in 2006 aged 94 after becoming the first Arab to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988. He is widely seen as an innovator of Arabic fiction.

In its citation for awarding the prize to him, the Nobel jury said he had formed an “Arabic narrative art that applies to all mankind”.

Most of Mahfouz’s output has been made into popular films.

The lawmaker’s comment on Mahfouz’s writings has drawn sharp criticism.

The Egyptian Creativity Front, a grouping of writers and filmmakers, slammed Mustafa’s remarks, saying they expose “extension of ideas of dark currents”.

“This deputy and other deputies should check with specialists before they talk so ignorantly on issues that they give the world an image of the Egyptian parliament as though it were a consultative council of Daesh or the [Muslim] Brotherhood,” the front said in a statement.

In mid-2013, the army deposed president Mohammad Mursi, a Brotherhood leader, following enormous street protests against his rule.

In recent years, Egyptian writers and artists have voiced concerns about freedom of expression after lawsuits were filed against them, with some ending up in prison.

Egyptian writer Ahmad Najui is presently serving a two-year jail term after he was convicted of violating public morals for publishing part of his novel, deemed explicitly sexual, in a state-run literary newspaper.

Last month, Muslim researcher Islam Al Behery was released from prison following a presidential pardon. Last year, a court sentenced Al Behery to one year in prison on charges of defaming Islam in a television programme. Al Behery questioned credibility of some widely accepted sources of Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) sayings, a major reference to Islamic jurisprudence.

Earlier this week, the parliament rejected a proposal to scrap jailing in publishing offences and limit penalty to fines. The legislature said that the proposal was unconstitutional.