'The future is on our side': Exiled Egyptian author remains defiant

Egypt's 2011 revolution is widely considered a failed one, but exiled writer Alaa Al Aswany sees it differently.

"I'm quite sure the revolution will win and I believe the change has already happened," said Al Aswany, "the future is on our side." 

Al Aswany is one of Egypt's most prominent novelists. Although his work has been translated into over 30 languages and published in more than 100 countries, his books have been banned in Egypt and throughout much of the Arab world. 

In 2011, Al Aswany joined the Egyptian uprising and spent 18 days in Cairo's Tahrir Square, along with thousands of other protestors. 

Egypt had been ruled for 30 years by one man — Hosni Mubarak — and when President Mubarak eventually stepped down, it became a defining moment of the Arab Spring. 

It was also a defining moment of Al Aswany's life.

"Anybody who joined the revolution will always belong to the revolution," he told IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed.  

Al Aswany's latest novel, The Republic of False Truths, is a fictionalized account of the 2011 uprising, told through the eyes of people on all sides of the revolution.

But the written word can be a dangerous thing. 

Egypt's current president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is a retired military officer who was instrumental in a coup that overthrew a democratically elected government. When he came to power, life changed for Al Aswany.

"I was banned from writing… I was banned from publishing, I was banned from any TV appearance. I was banned from everything," he said. 

Al Aswany knew he would have to leave Egypt as soon as he finished the first chapter of The Republic of False Truths, which featured a character named General Alwany, a pious man who also tortured prisoners on behalf of the regime. 

"I think that we will leave the country, I'm quite sure," Al Aswany told his wife. "I had this feeling after finishing the first chapter." The writer and his wife now live in the United States.

Al Aswany spoke to IDEAS host Nahlah Ayed as part of Toronto Public Library's Live & Online programming. To view the program in full, click here.

Here is an excerpt from their conversation.

Nahlah Ayed: What was it about that chapter that you think would have gotten you in major trouble there? 

Alaa Al Aswany: You don't find any dictator who likes literature. Never, you know, even if they pretend, even if they say, but it's something against the structure, against their mentality. So the fact that you write about this high-ranking general and … you write about the torture, about the virginity tests committed by the army. They will never tolerate that. Never. 

They cannot understand and they feel very offended. And of course, when I feel offended, it's something. And when President Sisi feels offended it's something very different. Because he has everything. I don't have anything, I just write.

Several of the older characters in your book believe — or they express that they believe — that Egyptians naturally identify with not only authority but with authoritarianism and authoritarian figures. It's kind of a recurring theme in your book. You sided with the revolution but did you ever believe or have the sense that maybe there is something to that bleak view of Egyptians?  

Not at all. You know, a novelist is like an actor, right? And then at some point, I become the character. I talk in the name of the character. And the character says many things I disagree with, and some characters do terrible things. I cannot stop them. They become independent people. [The character who said that] had to justify this, that the Egyptians will always fail in the revolution. This is not true… And this is a very common way of thinking among the generals in Egypt. 

Sure. And among the Middle East – I mean, you hear it in Iraq, you hear it in other countries where, well, you know: this country can't be ruled, must be ruled with an iron fist. 

I heard that. I fought with some minister at some point. And he said, 'you don't know Egypt and we have problems with you because all the people who got educated in the West, they come with very strange ideas and they want to change the nature of our people.' What is the nature of all these people?

If you go back to the statements of President Sisi and other rulers… they say, we're not obliged to accept the Western concept of human rights. We have our special Egyptian concept of human rights. And this is a terrible thing to say. It means that we can tolerate torture. We can be detained and tortured. But because we are Egyptians or Arabs, it's OK. 

It's true. And it repeats itself in other parts of the region as well... I wonder if you meant some kind of a warning or a foreshadowing in telling this story for the current generation of revolutionaries? 

Absolutely... I know many of them and I always tell them, 'you must read the history of the revolutions, and you will find out two conclusions.' First, no revolution was defeated totally. The revolution could at some point be stopped temporarily, but the revolution is the cultural change. You see the world differently. And this is irreversible simply.

Accordingly, we must wait, but the future is on our side because the revolution as an idea, as the concept, is irreversible. But of course, in all revolutions, the counterrevolution is very strong. What do we have as revolutionary people? The concept, the consciousness, the courage and the will.

The counterrevolution has everything: the army; the police; the judges; the media; the money; the international relations. So in the beginning, they will win. But definitely, we will overcome.
 

*Q&A was edited for clarity and length. This episode was produced by Greg Kelly and Kristin Nelson.