“I read the novel ‘The Shell‘, which talks about torture in Assad’s prisons, while in a state of hysterical fear that my phone was being monitored or that my electronic downloads were being surveilled by the security agencies.”
Rajab Khaldi, a 32-year-old who works in proofreading translated books, shares his “terrifying” experience with Enab Baladi about reading politically charged novels opposing the Assad family, which contradicts their way of ruling the country.
Both Assads (father and son) imposed strict bans on the sale, import, and reading of books that were contrary to their policies, tightening censorship over political and journalistic writing.
Khaldi said, “I imagined myself in Sednaya prison after every electronic download of books narrating stories of the Syrian revolution, and I used to hide them in a locked document on my phone.”
The return of forbidden books
With the fall of the Assad regime on December 8, 2024, politically charged literature returned to the shelves of libraries in the capital, Damascus, including the novel “The Shell” by Syrian author Mustafa Khalifa, which tells the story of a Christian youth arrested in the Tadmor prison under the accusation of being an Islamic extremist.
Also returning is the novel “My Aunt’s House,” a phrase used by Syrians to refer to prison, by Iraqi novelist Ahmed Khairy al-Omari.
Bookseller Mahmoud al-Saeed, known as “Abu Mamoun,” stated, “I used to contract with a young man in Beirut who would secretly bring me books like those by Dr. Burhan Ghalioun and prison literature novels to my library, selling them only to close young men and women.”
Abu Mamoun owns a stall under the Freedom Bridge (formerly the President Bridge) in the capital, Damascus.
The bookseller confirmed that banned books were in high demand, especially among the youth, “but now, no one reads.”
A book stall in the al-Shalaan area in Damascus, March 29, 2025 (Enab Baladi/Besan Khalaf)
An attempt to break the ban
“I used to hide books under my car seat on the Beirut-Damascus road, trying to distract security checkpoints with foreign cigarette packs as bribes to avoid searches,” Ahmed al-Homsi recounted how he smuggled banned books into Syria.
Al-Homsi told Enab Baladi, “I wasn’t afraid of being discovered, because most security personnel lack the cultural knowledge to understand these books, and bribery is a solution to all difficulties.”
Syrians in areas under the former regime relied on purchasing banned books from Beirut and secretly bringing them into Damascus or downloading them from electronic libraries in digital form.
The books returned from the ban are divided into two main categories: first, political books and those related to political prisoners (prison literature) and political works opposing the Assad family’s policies.
The second category includes some religious books; according to the owner of one library, those who sold these books “were certain to face extinction.”
Diminishing interest: Libraries closed
Before the regime’s fall, several libraries in Damascus closed due to high book prices and dwindling sales.
Meanwhile, the Damascus Governorate under the former regime removed dozens of book stalls under the Freedom Bridge in October 2024, provoking widespread discontent at the time.
After the regime’s fall, book stalls reappeared under the Freedom Bridge, but with minimal attendance.
In a previous report by Enab Baladi, a significant decline in the number of booksellers in Damascus was noted in recent years, with only 20 libraries remaining in the al-Halbouni area, seven stalls at the Freedom Bridge, and about five stalls near the college cluster in the al-Baramkeh area.
“Our situation is like that of the one holding hot coals,” expressed seller Ihsan Hab al-Rumman, known as “Abu Osama,” who has been selling books for 30 years, describing the state of their profession as representing “the remnants of a beautiful era.” He cannot abandon this job, which he inherited from his father when he was just 10 years old.
According to Abu Osama, despite the negligible prices of books, many libraries have closed due to losses as many readers have stopped purchasing them, with today’s reading enthusiasts numbered on one hand, as he expressed.
During the reign of the former regime, booksellers faced pressure from restrictions on selling and circulating certain books, particularly political works.
Moreover, street book vendors incurred financial losses after the Damascus Governorate, in October 2024, removed all stalls under the Freedom Bridge using bulldozers and confiscated approximately 200,000 books.
Seller Abdullah Hamdan reported losses close to 100 million Syrian pounds after the governorate confiscated all books without prior notice to them.
Books make a comeback in Damascus libraries after being banned under Assad Enab Baladi.
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