The article highlights the stringent censorship faced by authors and publishing houses in Syria during Bashar al-Assad's regime. Every book had to undergo scrutiny by various ministries affiliated with the security services, leading to rejections or heavy edits. Many politically sensitive or controversial books ended up banned, with their authors and publishers facing dire consequences. After the regime's fall, an employee of a major publishing house, Wahid Taja, began to revive the previously banned books, signaling a potential cultural renaissance and return of intellectual freedom in Syria through literature.
The censors scrutinized every aspect of a book's content, determining its fate based on political, religious, or literary categories, often leading to suppression or extensive revisions.
Under the Assad regime, publishing became an exercise in censorship, where merely being critical of the government could result in severe consequences for both authors and publishers.
Wahid Taja recalled a time when his publishing house's inventory swelled with banned books, illustrating the oppressive nature of censorship in Syria.
After the fall of the Assad regime, Taja expressed relief as he resurrected previously banned titles, symbolizing a new era for literature and free expression in Syria.
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