The Syrian novelist Fakhr Addin Fayyad won the first prize of the Association of Syrian writers for his novel ‘Ramsh Eil’ in an honoring ceremony in Antakya, Turkey. However, the Association refrained from publishing the novel “for security reasons.” Fayyad and the novelists Ghassan al-Jibaa’i and Sawsan Jamil Hassan, who won the second and third prizes were not able to attend the ceremony “for security reasons” as well. Taghreed Al Hajli, Minister of Culture and the Family Affairs in the Syrian interim government said that preventing novelists from attending the ceremony proves the intellectual tyranny of the Assad regime. This event proves to the world and the international community that the Syrian Revolution is a cultural revolution in the full sense of the word. The injustice the Assad regime has united all social classes to stand in the face of dictatorship, which was an obstacle standing in the way of the Syrian citizens who have long yearned for obtaining freedom and democracy. Hajli also said that the Syrian people are sending a message through this event to Assad that the language of violence and barrel bombs is not the only way capable of addressing the public, but that such novels that shed light on the massacres against the Syrian people are the appropriate language to address the Syrian people.” The contest was arbitrated by specialist writers, including Khatib Badla and Hossam al-Mohammad, who said that “novelists highlighted the decades of intellectual tyranny experienced by Syrians. They also answered a lot of cultural questions related to the Syrian Revolution and the Syrian society. Badlah praised the three award-winning novels, Ramsh Eil, Night Shirt and The General’s Coffee, for their sublime and candid style pursued by novelists in the treatment of Syrian reality and for shedding light on the crimes committed by the Assad regime over the past decades.” (Source: Syrian Coalition)
