Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library; The Washington Post, November 2, 2023

 Ahmed Naji, The Washington Post; Locked up in an Egyptian prison, I found solace in the library

"My family has a record when it comes to getting rid of books. When I was very young and we lived in Egypt, we had a ritual that took place at regular intervals. My father would throw open the cupboards and drawers and make an inventory of all the books, magazines and notebooks stored inside, a task that could take hours. The most important items were the journals containing his notes on the books he’d read; next came his collection of books by Islamist leaders such as Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna.

First my father would sort the books into groups, then distribute them among a number of hiding places. Some would be stored in cardboard boxes on the roof next to the chicken coop; others would be left for safekeeping with neighbors who weren’t involved in any political activism. Finally, he would decide that some books were too dangerous to keep — dangerous for him and for us. He could always get hold of another copy of them if he really needed to, and so he would burn them and painstakingly dispose of their ashes."