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At the Paris Book Fair 2019, a country enjoys the status of "special guest": the Sultanate of Oman. Dozens of authors from this state of the Persian Gulf are present in Paris. Oman has embarked on a vast cultural, diplomatic and tourist offensive.
Tens of thousands of visitors, hundreds of authors, from children's literature to the novel ... The Paris Book Fair has opened its doors for the whole weekend.
This year, it's impossible to miss the Oman Sultanate stand. It is one of the biggest of the Paris Book Fair. On the screens, images of high mountains, deserts, fortified cities and turquoise waters. On the shelves of libraries, the full speeches of Sultan Qaboos Ibn Said, youth books and plays.
Hassan al-Ramdani, a professor at the faculty of Muscat, admits that Omani literature is little known, yet " in every village there is a writer in Oman. Omanis are known as writers by nature, they speak very good Arabic, their Arabic language is very moderate, it's not the dialect or the classical Arabic, "he says.
Free books
For the Book Fair, the Sultanate of Oman has had dozens of books translated into French. Mohammed Said al-Rahbi directs the most important publisher of the Sultanate, Bait Ahghasham: 600 books published in seven years. " You really publish everything : I started with the novel, stories and also publishes theater, " he says.
If the Sultanate of Oman is singled out, including by Amnesty International, for violations of freedom of expression and association - the latest report of the NGO recalls that two writers were thus prevented from participating in the book fair of Muscat " apparently because they had criticized the government " - at the Paris Book Fair, it is the stability of the country , neighbor of Yemen, which is put forward. The Ministry of Information has launched an unprecedented operation for the 2019 edition. For visitors to the event, almost all books on the Oman stand are free.