French writer Annie Ernaux, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize for Literature, will not be attending the Algiers International Book Fair, the 26th edition of which opens on Wednesday, October 25. The author of the novel Les Années (The Years), among others, has been refused a visa to enter the country, according to a source close to the matter interviewed by Le Monde. The Algerian ambassador in Paris, Said Moussi, personally intervened in this matter, according to the same source.
No explanation was given by the authorities in Algiers. According to observers, the decision may be linked to an article co-signed in May by Annie Ernaux calling for the release of Algerian journalist Ihsane El Kadi. The text, published in Le Monde, denounced "police and judicial harassment of El Kadi, and all of the other prisoners of conscience in Algeria."
Addressing Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the authors of the letter – which caused quite a stir in the North African country – argued that "Algeria remains an ideal far greater than the dungeon it is becoming for its boldest journalists and most outspoken dissidents. It is the promised land of the wretched of the earth."
By refusing to grant a visa to the writer, "the Algerian regime no longer even knows how to identify its friends," said an academic, who wished to remain anonymous, noting that Ernaux was also one of the signatories of an "appeal from the world of culture for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza," published in L'Humanité on October 22.
The text, which condemns "war crimes, those of Hamas and those of the Israeli government," as well as "oppression and racism, in all [its] forms," has been well received in Algeria, where the position of the French authorities, perceived as too favorable to Israel, is the subject of severe criticism.
"You can't close the door on a friend in these grave times of dramatic cultural confrontation when every country is counting on its friends and allies to make its voice heard," wrote journalist Ghania Mouffok on her Facebook page. "By not receiving Annie Ernaux," she continued, "Algeria is providing weapons to fight against what it itself defends, from the depths of our history, which is anti-colonial and in favor of an equitable sharing of resources, from Palestine, the Western Sahara, and the Sahel to Muslim women whose right to practice their faith with or without a hijab is insulted."