French writer Dominique Martre was in the middle of presenting one of her books in a bookstore in Bejaïa when the Algerian police burst into this store on Saturday June 29 and arrested her, her publisher and several participants before releasing them a few hours later, the editor told Agence France-Presse (AFP), Sunday June 30.
“The police burst into the bookstore on Saturday afternoon at the start of the book presentation Kabylia shared and arrested everyone present in the room, including the author, her husband, myself and the bookseller.”said Arezki Ait Larbi, director of the Koukou publishing house. “We were taken to the police station before being released around 8 p.m.”he added.
The reasons for this police raid on the Gouraya bookstore have not been revealed. Sunday June 30, the writer was “still in Béjaïa without restriction of freedom”said Mr. Ait Larbi. “We have no explanation for the reason for this ban, the book is sold in all bookstores”, assured the editor. Last week, Dominique Martre presented his book in Algiers ” no problem “he continued.
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Kabylie shared, in the intimacy of womenpublished and sold in Algeria, relates the memories of the author Dominique Martre in the heart of a village in Kabylie in the 1970s. She recounts the experiences of women in this predominantly Amazigh region in northern Algeria. The Koukou publishing house has already been subject to censorship in recent years in Algeria. In 2022, it declared that twelve of its books, mainly on political subjects, had been banned at Algeria’s main book fair, SILA.
