{"id":14078,"date":"2016-01-26T19:42:26","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T23:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=14078"},"modified":"2016-01-26T19:42:26","modified_gmt":"2016-01-26T23:42:26","slug":"egyptian-poet-fatima-naoot-gets-three-year-jail-sentence-for-insulting-islam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/egyptian-poet-fatima-naoot-gets-three-year-jail-sentence-for-insulting-islam\/","title":{"rendered":"Egyptian Poet Fatima Naoot Gets Three-year Jail Sentence for \u2018Insulting Islam\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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via Arab Literature (in English)<\/strong> &\u00a0mlynxqualey<\/a>:<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Poet\u00a0Fatima Naoot was sentenced today to three years in prison and a 20,000LE fine,\u00a0found guilty of “contempt of religion”:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Photo from Poetry International.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to\u00a0Ahram Online<\/i><\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Naoot goes to prison immediately and must appeal from there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naoot was charged not for her poetry, but for a Facebook post from\u00a0October 2014. That’s when she described the\u00a0Eid Al-Adha’s tradition of slaughtering sheep as the “greatest massacre committed by human beings.”<\/span><\/p>\n

During questioning, Naoot, a\u00a0former candidate for parliament, denied that her aim was to insult Islam. Naoot argued instead, Ahram Online\u00a0<\/i>reported,\u00a0“that humans justified their lust for killing and enjoying the smell of cooking game by attempting to bestow a divine meaning to their actions.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Naoot\u00a0was convicted\u00a0under Article 98<\/span><\/a>, which states: “Whomever exploits religion in order to promote extremist ideologies by word of mouth, in writing or in any other manner, with a view to stirring up sedition, disparaging, or contempt of any divine religion or its adherents, or prejudicing national unity, shall be punished with imprisonment between six months and five years, or the payment of a fine of at least EGP 500.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“I’m not sad about the sentencing as I don’t care about going to jail. I’m sad that the efforts of reformists have been wasted,” Naoot said, according to\u00a0Middle East Online.\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

The conviction comes just two weeks before a retrial for novelist Ahmed Naji and editor Tarek al-Taher<\/span><\/a>, charged with offending public morals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Arabic Network for Human Rights Information issued a statement today<\/span><\/a> asserting that “the recent surge in the prosecution of opinion makers comes in conjunction with a fierce security campaign launched by security bodies against freedom of opinion and expression, with the aim of narrowing the overall climate of freedom of opinion and expression. Such a matter, in turn, makes Egypt one of the most Arab countries that show hostility to freedom of expression as well as press freedom, especially that about 59 journalists have remained in prison so far.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Naoot\u00a0has published several\u00a0poetry collections, translated anthologies from English into Arabic, and a\u00a0book of criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Poetry by Fatima Naoot:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

From <\/i>Poetry International<\/i><\/span><\/a>, translated by\u00a0Kees Nijland:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n