It’s hard to believe it is happening again. al-Mutanabbi Street the bookselling and cultural hub of Baghdad is in danger once more.
Flashback to March 2007, a car bomb explodes on al-Mutanabbi Street killing more than 30 people with hundreds more were wounded. No one claimed responsibility. The world’s book community was stunned. Numerous projects and events took place to support the victims, the books and the printed word, including the historic Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition project which brought together numerous letterpress printers and book artists from around the world.
The street was opened again for business in December of 2008.
Then on September 17 “bulldozers guarded by armed soldiers stormed the street late at night and smashed the wooden stalls used by booksellers for displaying and selling their books.”
The local officials say they are simply removing “violations” from the street. And what might the violation be? Apparently “officials in the municipality are planning to turn Mutanabbi Street into an animal market…Booksellers would only be permitted to work on Fridays, as is the case with vendors of birds and dogs.”
Yes, booksellers are now grouped with vendors of birds and dogs.
Oh, and a similar incident happened in Alexandria, Egypt a few weeks earlier. The city got a new governor and not too long after the city’s book market on Al-Nabi Daniel Street was destroyed.
How will the book community respond this time?
More at Al-Monitor: Historic Baghdad Book Market Bulldozed in Late-Night Raid