Country of Origin: Algeria
Formerly hosted by City of Asylum.
“The Salman Rushdie Attack: When a Literary Threat Becomes a Physical Scene”
A lecture reflecting on the attack on Salman Rushdie and the terrifying moment when a decades-old threat against a writer materialized in a public literary space. The talk examines how writers imagine such violence before it happens, how the scene can be represented through writing and visual imagination, and what the attack revealed about the continuing vulnerability of writers, even in spaces assumed to be safe.
“Witnessing the Attack on Salman Rushdie: When a Threat Against a Writer Became Reality”
I was an invited guest at the Chautauqua Institution when Salman Rushdie was attacked on stage in August 2022. I witnessed the immediate aftermath of the attack, documented the scene through photographs and video, and helped bring visual documentation of what had happened to the media.This lecture offers a rare first-person account of a historic attack on a writer. It explores what it means to witness violence against literature become physically real, the responsibility and ethical dilemmas of documenting such a moment, and the relationship between witnessing, journalism, memory, and freedom of expression. Drawing on my own experience as a writer who has faced censorship and prosecution, I also examine the deeper symbolism of being present when a threat against another writer, carried across decades, suddenly became an act of physical violence.
“The Banned Book: What Happens to a Writer When a Book Becomes a Crime?”
Drawing from my own experience of having literary work banned and facing legal consequences because of writing, this lecture explores censorship from the inside. What does it mean psychologically, politically, and artistically when a state decides that a novel is dangerous? The lecture also examines the paradoxical afterlife of banned books and the relationship between prohibition, fear, curiosity, and literary power.
Willing to share personal story.