{"id":37054,"date":"2025-05-16T08:59:40","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T06:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/?p=37054"},"modified":"2025-08-19T15:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:41:48","slug":"algerian-french-author-kamel-daoud-on-the-defensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themarkaz.org\/oldmarkaz\/algerian-french-author-kamel-daoud-on-the-defensive\/","title":{"rendered":"Algerian-French Author Kamel Daoud on the Defensive"},"content":{"rendered":"
Embattled Algerian-French author Kamel Daoud won France\u2019s most prestigious literary prize for a story he is accused of stealing. Now, facing two international arrest warrants, the novelist is digging in his heels: \u201cIs it a novel or a crime?\u201d<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Lara Vergnaud<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Friday, May 9, the Com\u00e9die du Livre<\/a> \u2014 an annual literary festival held in Montpellier for the last 40 years \u2014 kicked off with a public interview featuring famed and controversial Algerian-French writer Kamel Daoud. The mood at the event was disconcerting. A large, cheerful crowd gathered before the Op\u00e9ra Com\u00e9die, many holding copies of Daoud\u2019s latest novel, Houris<\/em>, waiting for the doors to open. But when they did, it was by two armed police officers, who proceeded to check purses and backpacks. Security officers inside gave everyone a thorough pat down. Once the event finally began, Daoud himself appeared stern, seated onstage with arms crossed, unsmiling, eyes down \u2014 a defensive posture?<\/p>\n

Of course it was. Daoud was born and raised in Algeria and became a French citizen only in 2020. Two days before his Com\u00e9die du Livre appearance, Algeria had issued two international arrest warrants<\/a> for Daoud and his wife. The writer is accused of using a young woman\u2019s life story without her consent in Houris<\/em>, which was awarded France\u2019s highest literary honor, the Prix Goncourt, in November 2024. The novel is set during Algeria\u2019s \u201cblack decade,\u201d a bloody civil war that began in late 1991 and ended in 2002. The protagonist is a young woman whose family was massacred by Islamist militants; she lost use of her voice after a botched throat-slitting. These biographical details echo those of the plaintiff, Sa\u00e2da Arbane, a former patient of therapist A\u00efcha Dahdouh, who is married to Daoud. Arbane claims that the novel is based on information she shared during their confidential sessions and that the couple tried to convince her to let Daoud write her story. However, she refused. Algerian authorities want Daoud and his wife to return and face the charges. Amid ongoing tensions between the two nations, France appears to be protecting the author, with foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine citing a commitment to \u201cfreedom of expression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kamel<\/a>
Kamel Daoud, shot by Gallimard’s photographer, F. Mantovani (courtesy E\u0301ditions Gallimard).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The controversy threatens to mar what is an extraordinary literary achievement \u2014 the Goncourt is the French equivalent of the prestigious Booker Prize, and is practically guaranteed to earn its recipient, if they\u2019re not already well-known, household name recognition in France, not to mention a huge bump in book sales (more than 400,000 copies of Houris<\/em> have sold thus far). Daoud\u2019s win is also significant on a symbolic level, as he is the first Algerian author to win the highest literary prize awarded by a country still grappling with its colonial legacy, often recalcitrantly.<\/p>\n

That messy context explains the tension during Friday\u2019s event at Montpellier\u2019s Com\u00e9die du Livre, which felt like an odd dance between journalist Jean Birnbaum, editor-in-chief of Le Monde des Livres,<\/em> who tiptoed near the controversy but avoided any hard-hitting questions, and Daoud, who was on his guard and mostly deflected. To Birnbaum\u2019s first question, \u201cAlors<\/em> ca va?\u201d<\/em> (So, how are you?), Daoud gave a long response about silence: \u201cI\u2019ve been attacked in Algeria for twenty years; I\u2019ve had to keep quiet for twenty years.\u201d The conversation quickly shifted to apparently safer terrain, e.g., the purpose and perception of literature, with many literary divagations and name dropping \u2014 authors are still on safe ground with Sartre, Camus, and Roland Barthes.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the questions, Daoud kept returning to the idea of being under attack, at one point noting that simply being Algerian-French is enough to earn him relentless criticism. The reality is yes, Daoud has been under attack, from many quarters, for over a decade, but not merely because of his identity. Initially viewed by many as a fresh, progressive voice, he earned international literary stardom with his clever retelling of Camus\u2019 famous novel, L\u2019\u00c9tranger. <\/em>Daoud\u2019s version, Meursault, contre-enqu\u00eate<\/em>, published as The Mersault Investigation<\/em> by Other Press, tells the story from the Arab perspective. Daoud is also a journalist and columnist, notably for the conservative French periodical Le Point, and as such has been famously critical of Islamism and Arab nationalism, specifically in Algeria. While he has also been critical of France, over the years, his stance has stiffened into a facile dichotomy that often parrots rhetoric espoused by the French far right \u2014 Arab savagery vs. European exceptionalism, Algerian backwardness vs. French enlightenment. Most controversially<\/a>, perhaps, Daoud has fixated on the notion of \u201csexual misery\u201d in the Arab world.<\/p>\n

All of which has made him the unexpected darling of French conservatives. Or rather, the attention is unexpected from a cursory level. For while Daoud\u2019s shift may appear radical, it is likely if only because it has become more pronounced in recent years. Among those to publicly congratulate the author on his Goncourt win was Marion Mar\u00e9chal, a far-right French politician and niece of Marine Le Pen.<\/p>\n

A reliance on stereotypes and offensive tropes in lieu of solid arguments has been present in Daoud\u2019s writing for years. His latest publication is no exception. Not Houris<\/em>, but a political essay published (coincidentally?) on May 8, titled Il faut parfois trahir<\/em> (Sometimes You Must Betray), which reads like a string of incohesive arguments penned by someone firmly backed into a corner and defending said corner. Incidentally, during the event, there were several moments of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu for those, like myself, who had leapt to read the essay upon publication, when Daoud quoted himself without mentioning the work. (However odd, this is, of course, allowed an author).<\/p>\n

The danger in Daoud\u2019s sweeping judgments, which he is prone to expressing in pithy sound bites, lies in their potential to garner consensus while hiding their insidious subtext. For some of his statements, on the surface, sound reasonable. For example, during the event, he paraphrased himself when he said, \u201cWe can\u2019t dream of walking on the moon when we\u2019re burying women, we can\u2019t create a happy people with unhappy women.\u201d Who can argue with that? (The phrase is more eloquent in the essay: \u201cHow can we hope to walk on the moon with one leg?\u201d, Il faut parfois trahir<\/em>, Gallimard, 2025.) The same is true of his enjoinder to \u201clive in the present,\u201d alluding to what he views as an Algerian state stuck in the past \u2014 specifically, one <\/em>past: the Algerian War of Independence \u2014 and musings about an ideal religion in which children would be considered more important than ancestors. In other words, children are the future? Again, yes, agreed.<\/p>\n

But while there is some validity to certain of Daoud\u2019s criticisms, they appear to be underlaid by a disturbing and generalized rejection of the Arab-Islamic world, which then feeds a robust Islamophobic discourse in France that hardly needs feeding. (Daoud has repeatedly insisted, including in last week\u2019s event, that he is not \u201cresponsible for interpretations\u201d of his work, merely his words.) His stance on Palestine has earned him similar criticisms of adhering to a Western narrative. In the past, he has loudly criticized Arab powers for using Palestine as a distraction while allotting little attention to the Israeli occupation at the heart of the conflict. Since Oct 7, 2023, Daoud has vocally condemned Hamas while, again, saying little about the Israeli military response. Over 18 months had passed, with no mention of the genocide or mass starvation of Palestinians. Then \u00a0on May 11, Daoud was among a group of French historians, intellectuals, writers, and other cultural figures who penned a milquetoast open letter<\/a> to France, the United Kingdom, and the rest of Europe to take action \u201cbefore it\u2019s too late.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is precisely as Daoud described, bitterly, it felt like, during the Montpellier event: he is under relentless attack, reviled by many in his native country, while also, notwithstanding support from some rightwing circles, distrusted in France \u201cfor not being the good Arab.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, near the end of the conversation, Birnbaum broached the latest controversy, making an impressively awkward pivot: \u201cYou said, we can\u2019t be happy if women aren\u2019t happy\u2026 which prompts the question\u2026 since a woman is behind these arrest warrants\u2026\u201d Daoud\u2019s response was that he wouldn\u2019t be talking about the matter, but then did precisely that. After noting that it is inevitable that people see themselves in his books, Daoud said, \u201cthankfully, unlike Boualem\u201d \u2014 referring to fellow Algerian-French author Boualem Sansal, who is currently detained<\/a> in Algeria \u2014 he will have his day in court. French court, that is, as though Arbane also filed charges against the author in France. Always one for a catchy phrase, Daoud added, to wide applause, \u201cC’est un roman, pas un crime.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0“It’s a novel, not a crime.”<\/p>\n

This will be determined on September 10, Daoud\u2019s scheduled hearing date in Paris.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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