French writer Dominique Martre, her husband, her publisher and people present in the room during the presentation of her book “La Kabylie en partage, dans l’encontre des femmes” were arrested on Saturday by law enforcement in a bookstore in Bejaïa, in eastern Algeria.
While the author was presenting one of her works in a bookstore in the Algerian city of Bejaia, the police intervened to arrest her, her publisher and participants. All were released around 8 p.m., according to some press sources.
“The police burst into the bookstore on Saturday afternoon at the start of the presentation of the book ‘La Kabylie en partage, dans l’encontre des femmes’ and arrested everyone present in the room, including the author, her husband, myself and the bookseller,” reported her publisher Arezki Ait-Larbi, who oversees the Koukou publishing house.
The reasons for this police intervention at the Gouraya bookstore have not been disclosed. “We have no explanation for the reason for this ban, the book is sold in all bookstores,” he continued.
This book focuses on the memories of Dominique Martre in a hamlet in Kabylie during the 1970s and relates the daily lives of women in this predominantly Amazigh region located in the north of Algeria.
On Sunday, the author was “still in Béjaïa without any restrictions on her freedom,” according to her publisher. The previous week, she had presented her work in Algiers “without any problems,” according to the same source.
