ABSTRACT
On 2 January 2001, newly elected parliamentary deputy and Muslim Brother Gamal Hishmat submitted an enquiry to Minister of Culture Faruq Husni concerning the publication by the General Organization for Cultural Palaces (GOCP) of three novels containing what the MP described as “explicitly indecent material amounting to pornography”.1 Within two days of the submission of the enquiry, the Minister of Culture ordered an investigation, whereupon his legal adviser conducted an “interrogation” of those responsible in the absent minister’s office. The outcome was the formal dismissal of Muhammad al-Bisati – editor of Literary Voices, the GOCP series responsible for the publication of the three novels, and one of Egypt’s leading writers – along with his managing editor, the poet Girgis Shukri. Both men had already tendered their resignations before the parliamentary crisis, owing to bureaucratic disputes within the GOCP. The next day, the Prime Minister Atif Ibid officially sacked Ali Abu Shadi, head of the GOCP, a man deemed by his peers, and by Faruq Husni himself, to be one of the most respected members of the institution. The first half of the latest match between Egypt’s political and cultural players was over before the opposing team had a chance to suit up.
