Syria stops banning books. Readers rejoice.
The Fardous Bookstore, once under restrictions imposed by the former Assad regime, now sells previously-banned books to eager readers.
Taylor Luck
Damascus, Syria
Post-revolution Syria is becoming a page-turner鈥檚 paradise.
After years of being banned by the former regime, dozens of long sought-after books are flooding stores across Syria, literally spilling onto the streets.
An epicenter of this new literary freedom is the so-called 鈥渂ookshop alley鈥� in the Halbouni neighborhood of Damascus, a leafy street lined by two dozen bookshops and printers, big and small.
Why We Wrote This
For decades, Syrians could not readily buy books banned by the Assad family dictatorship. The dynasty鈥檚 fall means no more banned books.
It is here that Radwan Sharqawi runs the Fardous Bookstore, a small corner shop that his family has owned since 1920. The contrast between today鈥檚 Syria and the long period of Assad family rule is like night and day, he says.
鈥淏efore we had daily interrogations by the security services,鈥� Mr. Sharqawi says. 鈥淣ow everything is permitted, nothing is banned. Now is a golden era for books!鈥�
For decades, any book written by an intellectual or an artist who had expressed opposition to the Assad regime 鈥� or who simply did not vocally toe the official line 鈥� was banned.
So, too, were books that touched on Syrian history from any perspective other than the ruling Baath Party鈥檚 revisionist version. Titles on the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, or anything on the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings, were contraband.
Out from the shadows
As soon as news broke of Bashar al-Assad鈥檚 fall last December, Mr. Sharqawi, like many booksellers, brought out banned books that he had previously stashed away and sold only to trusted customers in secret. Customers began lining up to buy formerly forbidden tomes.
鈥淭he world is a village; you can鈥檛 control information or ban knowledge,鈥� says Mr. Sharqawi. 鈥淏anning books is backwards. People are going to express themselves and read.鈥�
The Assad regime, father and son, 鈥渧iewed books as a drug: awareness, thought, and culture that could spread and threaten them,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he regime produced and traded in narcotics and treated books worse than drugs.鈥� Banned titles were secretly smuggled into Syria from Lebanon, destined for select customers.
Books banned in the Assad era included publications about Islam, and Islamist thinkers with any theological or real-world ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement seen as a political rival to the nominally secular Assad regime.
Islamic thinkers such as Ibn Taymiyya, the influential medieval Sunni jurist and scholar, were banned. So, too, were books by Brotherhood-aligned clerics such as Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, and Yusuf al-Qaradawi.
Even a book as basic as a 迟补蹿蝉墨谤, an annotated Quran with explanations and context, was banned, for fear it might contradict the Assad government鈥檚 tightly controlled Islamic authorities.
鈥淭hese are texts about religion and God, not politics,鈥� says Abdulkader al-Sarooji, owner of the Ibn Al Qayem bookshop, as a customer browses shelves of leather-bound Islamic books, their titles engraved in decorative golden calligraphy. 鈥淭he word of God harms no one.鈥�
No limits now
As soon as the regime fell, Mr. Sarooji began importing books from Turkey and northern Syria to Damascus. Syrians are rushing to snatch up banned titles, from Ibn Taymiyya鈥檚 works to the writings of Syrian French opposition thinker Burhan Ghalioun.
鈥淭here is demand for banned books because people feel there is a gap in their knowledge, even in their religious knowledge,鈥� says Mr. Sarooji.
The most dangerous texts during the Assad era 鈥� and the books in highest demand now 鈥� are works of literary fiction, titles that draw on the real experiences of Syrians who spent time in jail and suffered abuse at the hands of the regime.
The most fiercely banned book was 鈥淏ayt Khalti,鈥� by Ahmed al-Amri, which details the horrors faced by women in the notorious Sednaya prison.
Now 鈥淏ayt Khalti鈥� is prominently displayed on bookshelves and vendors鈥� roadside stands across Damascus 鈥� in both legitimate editions and blurry knockoffs that feed the high demand.
鈥淭his book was the most dangerous one,鈥� street-side book vendor Hussein Mohammed says as he waves a copy of 鈥淏ayt Khalti.鈥� 鈥淚f they caught you with this, you were a goner.鈥�
Another popular banned text, 鈥淎l Qoqaa,鈥� or 鈥淭he Cochlea,鈥� details a 海角大神 Syrian鈥檚 time in Mr. Assad鈥檚 prisons.
Eyad, a young Damascene, purchased a book of fiction from Mr. Mohammed after spending an hour browsing in the bookshop alley.
鈥淭here are a lot of books that I have wanted to read for years,鈥� he says, rattling off the titles of several Islamic and political books. 鈥淢y reading list is long, and my ability to buy them is limited.鈥�
鈥淏ut now we have freedom and the time to read.鈥�