Stand in Solidarity with “Naji”… Stand in Solidarity with Freedom of Culture and Creativity

Statement by the Revolutionary Socialists

The imprisonment of journalist and novelist Ahmed Naji is not an exception to the policies of the Sisi regime. From the outset, this military regime has openly declared its enmity toward everything related to culture, Art, and literature. From shutting down the monthly Art Square festival—an artistic and cultural product of the January Revolution—to the imprisonment of Islam al-Behery, Naji, and Fatima Naoot, to the closure of Rawabet Theater, the raid on Merit Publishing House and numerous other incidents, it has become clear that this ruling regime is the fiercest enemy of thought, Art, and culture. Nothing demonstrates this more than the way it surrounds itself with the worst kinds of ignorant and deceitful individuals in every field—whether media, culture, or even science—only to regurgitate then reactionary slogans about protecting society from “public indecency.”

But what “public decency” are they talking about? This so-called “public decency” must have been armored enough not to be “offended” when officers and soldiers sexually harassed female protesters during demonstrations and marches—or when they raped them in police vehicles, prisons, and detention centers! A tyrannical state like the one ruling us today—one that tortures and rapes detainees in an attempt to humiliate and break them—has no right to speak of decency. What decency can they claim when they have made a routine of persecuting, murdering, and crushing anyone who dares to oppose them?

For a long time, many intellectuals and writers believed that the regime’s brutality and repression would never reach them. But a military state cannot cement its tyranny except by besieging minds and killing creativity as well. This regime has proven itself to be not only the most bloodthirsty and criminal in Egypt’s modern history but also the most ignorant and regressive. This realization shatters the illusions of those among the political and intellectual elite who were deceived into supporting it—driven by their fear of the Muslim Brotherhood’s reactionary and sectarian agenda. It also exposes the regime-aligned intellectuals who, since June 30, 2013—and even before—have filled the world with deafening noise, promoting Sisi and his men as the defenders of secularism and enlightenment against the so-called “darkness” of Islamist movements. Today, it is evident that the darkness of military rule is no different from the darkness of Islamist rule.

It is now time for intellectuals and politicians who once feared the fundamentalism of the Islamists to place Sisi’s regime in its rightful place—as an enemy of all values of freedom of thought, expression, and creativity. It is also imperative to expose and denounce the so-called intellectuals of the regime who have willingly placed themselves at the service of a system that is inherently hostile to culture.

Rejecting the Muslim Brotherhood’s reactionary and sectarian ideology cannot be a principled stance unless it is accompanied by the rejection of the equally reactionary and sectarian policies of the Sisi regime—policies that have transformed state religious institutions into mere tools for issuing fatwas that legitimize the regime, endorse its policies, and mobilize voters in its favor.

Sisi’s regime has become a massive force of destruction—threatening the lives, safety, freedom, culture, and creativity of Egyptians. The sentencing of Naji is not just an assault on his freedom; it is an execution order against creative freedom and intellectual expression in Egypt. This state seeks to mold literature, Art, and culture into a rigid, conservative—even reactionary—framework that fears everything new or unfamiliar, restricting creativity to only what serves its interests and sustains its dominance. It is truly a state that fears anyone who dares to stand apart from the herd of its so-called “artists” and “intellectuals”—those whose only function is to cheer for its massacres and justify its scandals.

But make no mistake—this repression is intentional. Just as they steal, they suppress. Just as they rob the poor of their livelihoods, they kill, imprison, and torture. Just as they barricade protests and sit-ins, they strangle thought and cultural creativity. They suffocate every form of independent artistic and intellectual expression, ensuring that Egyptians’ minds remain confined within their pre-approved, suffocating frameworks.

We must also recognize—just as clearly—that the struggle for freedom of protest, organization, and the release of detainees; the fight for economic justice and dignified life; the battle for the liberation of women, Copts, and religious minorities in Egypt—these struggles are inseparable from the struggle for cultural and creative freedom.
Stand in solidarity with Ahmed Naji… for the liberation of Art and culture.