Latest news with #Arbane
Kuwait Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Kuwait Times
Algerian attack survivor vows to be heard in court battle with author
Saada Arbane has lived without a voice since her throat was slit during the Algerian civil war. But now, the 31-year-old woman has vowed to make herself heard after she said a best-selling novel plagiarized her life. Kamel Daoud's novel "Houris" -- banned in Algeria and awarded France's top literary prize Prix Goncourt last year -- tells the story of a child who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat during the 1990s war. Last November, Arbane took the literary world by storm when she announced on Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the novel's main character was based on her experiences without her consent. She said the book's details were too similar to the personal stories she had narrated during years of treatment with her psychotherapist, Aicha Dahdouh -- who is Daoud's wife. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane's life, but the woman who is suing him both in France and Algeria has vowed to "defend (her) integrity". Court hearings have begun in the French case, while according to Paris's foreign ministry, Algerian authorities have issued two arrest warrants against Daoud following Arbane's complaint. Speaking through a breathing tube, Arbane was barely audible in a video call with AFP from Algeria. She later answered questions in written responses. She said she had been a victim as a child when she lost relatives, including both of her parents, during the attack in 2000. "But now, I am an adult, a woman, a mother who knows how to say stop, even if I no longer have a voice," she wrote. 'Betrayed' "The novel draws directly from the most intimate parts of my life, which I shared in a medical setting," she said. "I felt betrayed, humiliated," she added. "Clearly, what I read in that novel amounts to a violation of medical confidentiality and of my privacy." Now married and a mother, she said her therapy sessions had been "highjacked to become literary material". "It's not just a mistake," she added. "It's a professional, legal, human and ethical failing." Filed complaints outlined several alleged similarities between Arbane and Aube, the novel's protagonist: the breathing tube, a slashed throat, identical scar and tattoos, and a hair salon both she and Aube owned. Daoud has denied modelling the novel on the content of her therapy sessions. He said in December "everyone" knew the story in Algeria. "It's public knowledge." But she disagrees. For him to say that, Arbane told AFP, "amounts to dispossessing me a second time of my truth and voice. This is an attempt to make light of something very serious." "My story has never been public," she said. 'Terrible dispossession' Daoud also suggested that Arbane was being manipulated by the Algerian government in what his publisher described as "violent defamatory campaigns" against him. "To say I'm being used by the Algerian authorities is just a cowardly attempt to discredit my words by politicizing them," she responded. Arbane said her main ordeal now was "reawakened traumas". "I felt a terrible sense of dispossession, the impression that what I had lived through was banal, that I was at the mercy of anyone -- a killer, like the first time, or a man, an author," she said. She said Daoud's wife, with whom she later developed a friendship, had repeatedly approached her asking if she would allow the author to write about her life -- and each time, she said, she turned down the proposal. "I launched these legal proceedings in France and Algeria to defend my integrity and to say that... forgotten stories deserve respect," she said. "I'm not trying to censor a writer. I'm trying to have a real and very serious harm acknowledged." - AFP
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Algerian attack survivor vows to be heard in court battle with award-winning author
Saada Arbane has lived without a voice since her throat was slit during the Algerian civil war. But now, the 31-year-old woman has vowed to make herself heard after she said a best-selling novel plagiarised her life. Kamel Daoud's novel "Houris" -- banned in Algeria and awarded France's top literary prize Prix Goncourt last year -- tells the story of a child who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat during the 1990s war. Last November, Arbane took the literary world by storm when she announced on Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the novel's main character was based on her experiences without her consent. She said the book's details were too similar to the personal stories she had narrated during years of treatment with her psychotherapist, Aicha Dahdouh -- who is Daoud's wife. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane's life, but the woman who is suing him both in France and Algeria has vowed to "defend (her) integrity". Court hearings have begun in the French case, while according to Paris's foreign ministry, Algerian authorities have issued two arrest warrants against Daoud following Arbane's complaint. Speaking through a breathing tube, Arbane was barely audible in a video call with AFP from Algeria. She later answered questions in written responses. She said she had been a victim as a child when she lost relatives, including both of her parents, during the attack in 2000. "But now, I am an adult, a woman, a mother who knows how to say stop, even if I no longer have a voice," she wrote. - 'Betrayed' - "The novel draws directly from the most intimate parts of my life, which I shared in a medical setting," she said. "I felt betrayed, humiliated," she added. "Clearly, what I read in that novel amounts to a violation of medical confidentiality and of my privacy." Now married and a mother, she said her therapy sessions had been "highjacked to become literary material". "It's not just a mistake," she added. "It's a professional, legal, human and ethical failing." Filed complaints outlined several alleged similarities between Arbane and Aube, the novel's protagonist: the breathing tube, a slashed throat, identical scar and tattoos, and a hair salon both she and Aube owned. Daoud has denied modelling the novel on the content of her therapy sessions. He said in December "everyone" knew the story in Algeria. "It's public knowledge." But she disagrees. For him to say that, Arbane told AFP, "amounts to dispossessing me a second time of my truth and voice. This is an attempt to make light of something very serious." "My story has never been public," she said. - 'Terrible dispossession' - Daoud also suggested that Arbane was being manipulated by the Algerian government in what his publisher described as "violent defamatory campaigns" against him. "To say I'm being used by the Algerian authorities is just a cowardly attempt to discredit my words by politicising them," she responded. Arbane said her main ordeal now was "reawakened traumas". "I felt a terrible sense of dispossession, the impression that what I had lived through was banal, that I was at the mercy of anyone -- a killer, like the first time, or a man, an author," she said. She said Daoud's wife, with whom she later developed a friendship, had repeatedly approached her asking if she would allow the author to write about her life -- and each time, she said, she turned down the proposal. "I launched these legal proceedings in France and Algeria to defend my integrity and to say that... forgotten stories deserve respect," she said. "I'm not trying to censor a writer. I'm trying to have a real and very serious harm acknowledged." iba/bou/db/ami
France 24
12-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Algerian attack survivor vows to be heard in court battle with award-winning author
Kamel Daoud's novel "Houris" -- banned in Algeria and awarded France's top literary prize Prix Goncourt last year -- tells the story of a child who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat during the 1990s war. Last November, Arbane took the literary world by storm when she announced on Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the novel's main character was based on her experiences without her consent. She said the book's details were too similar to the personal stories she had narrated during years of treatment with her psychotherapist, Aicha Dahdouh -- who is Daoud's wife. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane's life, but the woman who is suing him both in France and Algeria has vowed to "defend (her) integrity". Court hearings have begun in the French case, while according to Paris's foreign ministry, Algerian authorities have issued two arrest warrants against Daoud following Arbane's complaint. Speaking through a breathing tube, Arbane was barely audible in a video call with AFP from Algeria. She later answered questions in written responses. She said she had been a victim as a child when she lost relatives, including both of her parents, during the attack in 2000. "But now, I am an adult, a woman, a mother who knows how to say stop, even if I no longer have a voice," she wrote. 'Betrayed' "The novel draws directly from the most intimate parts of my life, which I shared in a medical setting," she said. "I felt betrayed, humiliated," she added. "Clearly, what I read in that novel amounts to a violation of medical confidentiality and of my privacy." Now married and a mother, she said her therapy sessions had been "highjacked to become literary material". "It's not just a mistake," she added. "It's a professional, legal, human and ethical failing." Filed complaints outlined several alleged similarities between Arbane and Aube, the novel's protagonist: the breathing tube, a slashed throat, identical scar and tattoos, and a hair salon both she and Aube owned. Daoud has denied modelling the novel on the content of her therapy sessions. He said in December "everyone" knew the story in Algeria. "It's public knowledge." But she disagrees. For him to say that, Arbane told AFP, "amounts to dispossessing me a second time of my truth and voice. This is an attempt to make light of something very serious." "My story has never been public," she said. 'Terrible dispossession' Daoud also suggested that Arbane was being manipulated by the Algerian government in what his publisher described as "violent defamatory campaigns" against him. "To say I'm being used by the Algerian authorities is just a cowardly attempt to discredit my words by politicising them," she responded. Arbane said her main ordeal now was "reawakened traumas". "I felt a terrible sense of dispossession, the impression that what I had lived through was banal, that I was at the mercy of anyone -- a killer, like the first time, or a man, an author," she said. She said Daoud's wife, with whom she later developed a friendship, had repeatedly approached her asking if she would allow the author to write about her life -- and each time, she said, she turned down the proposal. "I launched these legal proceedings in France and Algeria to defend my integrity and to say that... forgotten stories deserve respect," she said.
Morocco World
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Morocco World
Algeria Targets Author Kamel Daoud With Two International Arrest Warrants
Rabat – France recently acknowledged that they were notified of two international arrest warrants issued by Algerian authorities targeting French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the information on Wednesday. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said France would keep a close watch on the situation. He described Daoud as a 'respected and well-known author' and recalled France's unwavering stance on freedom of expression. The warrants come in the wake of legal proceedings launched in Algeria last year. A court in Oran accepted complaints filed against Daoud and his wife, a psychiatrist, over the novel Houris, which won the 2024 Prix Goncourt, one of France's highest literary honors. At the heart of the case lies the story of Saâda Arbane, a woman who survived one of the many massacres of Algeria's civil war in the 1990s. Arbane accuses Daoud and his wife of using details from her trauma without her consent. She had been under the care of Daoud's wife, and the novel's protagonist bears echoes of her experience, particularly a harrowing incident where a young woman survives a throat-slashing on the eve of Algeria's new millennium. Arbane filed one of the two complaints in Algeria. The second comes from Algeria's National Organization of Victims of Terrorism. Both claim the novel appropriates the pain of real people for literary gain. Daoud also faces a civil lawsuit in France, where Arbane claims violation of privacy. A court in Paris held a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. Under Algerian law, courts may issue international arrest warrants when suspects are abroad. Daoud, currently in France, learned of the warrants through his lawyer, Jacqueline Laffont-Haïk. 'These warrants carry a clear political motive,' she told AFP. 'This is part of a wider attempt to silence a writer whose work touches on Algeria's most painful memories.' Laffont-Haïk said her team would file an appeal with Interpol's Commission for the Control of Files to prevent further distribution of the warrants. Houris explores the aftermath of Islamist violence in Algeria, focusing on the personal scars it left behind. Due to Algerian censorship laws, which ban literature addressing the civil war between 1992 and 2002, the novel remains unavailable in the country. Speaking on France Inter in December, Daoud defended his novel, stating the story was already part of the public domain in Algeria and insisting that Houris does not chronicle Arbane's life. His publisher, Gallimard, denounced what it described as smear campaigns from media close to Algerian authorities. As legal pressure mounts on Daoud, the case raises larger questions about the boundaries between fiction and truth, memory and silence, and the cost writers may pay when they return to the wounds a country refuses to examine. Tags: Algerian authorbook censorshipdaoud kamelhourisKamel DaoudLiterature
France 24
07-05-2025
- Politics
- France 24
Algeria issues arrest warrants for writer Daoud amid escalating tensions with France
Kamel Daoud, winner of the 2024 Goncourt Prize for his novel "Houris", which is banned in Algeria, is now the subject of two international arrest warrants issued by Algerian authorities, French diplomats confirmed on Tuesday. The Algerian judiciary informed France of the move, foreign ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said. "We are monitoring and will continue to monitor developments in this situation closely," he said, stressing that Daoud was "a renowned and respected author" and that France was committed to freedom of expression. In 2024, Daoud won France 's top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel "Houris", centred on Algeria 's civil war between the government and Islamists in the 1990s. The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when an Islamist cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the war. In November, the woman, Saada Arbane, told Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the main character in the book is based on her experiences. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane's life. Arbane says she told her story during a course of treatment with a psychotherapist who became Daoud's wife in 2016. She has accused Daoud of then using the details narrated during their therapy sessions in his book. The warrants were issued after Arbane filed a complaint against the writer with a court in Algeria. Arbane is also suing Daoud in France for invasion of privacy. A preliminary hearing is set to take place in Paris on Wednesday. The writer's publisher Gallimard has defended Daoud and his wife, saying they were the victims of orchestrated attacks following the banning of the book in Algeria. Tensions have soared between France and Algeria, its former colony, especially after Paris last year recognised Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara, where Algeria backs the pro-independence Polisario Front.
