The Constitution Party in Alexandria organised on Thursday a seminar with novelist Alaa Al-Aswany, which the author claimed security forces attempted to ban.
Al-Aswany said that the Constitution Party headquarters was the only place left where they could hold the seminar after security forces attempted to ban it in other places.
During the seminar, which was entitled “Change is the approaching dream’’, Al-Aswany discussed several current political issues, in which he criticised President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s performance, particularly highlighting the controversy surrounding the transfer of Tiran and Sanafir islands to Saudi Arabia.
Al-Aswany is a dentist and novelist who has authored a number of well-known books, as well as many journalistic articles. Among his most prominent works is the 2002 novel Yacoubian Building, which has been translated into several languages. In 2007, he published the novel Chicago, based around a group of Egyptians studying in the United States.
This was not the first attempt by security forces to ban the novelist’s seminar. There have been several attempts to ban the seminar due to its political content.
In December 2015, they banned a seminar a titled “Conspiracy theory: between reality and illusions” that was supposed to be held on 10 December at the Jesuits Cultural Center in Alexandria due objections about its content.
