Egyptian law does not prescribe content review as a condition of book publication. Yet writers and publishers describe being asked for approvals from military operations, morale affairs and surveying authorities before obtaining legal-deposit numbers, or being told approval has not arrived or a book is rejected without knowing who decided or why. The National Library denies examining content, while the publishers’ union president says he has received no complaints.
On 26 July, writer Sherif El Asfoury went to the General Authority for the National Library and Archives to obtain a deposit number for his new book, The Flood of Fools, about military operations in Iran. He says an employee told him he first needed approval from the Egyptian Armed Forces’ Operations Authority, responsible for strategic planning and military operations.
When he questioned this, he says he was told ministerial instructions required different approvals according to subject matter: military and police institutions or commanders from Morale Affairs, military operations from the Operations Authority, maps from the Survey Authority, and religious subjects from Al Azhar or the relevant church. Employees had reportedly signed undertakings making them personally responsible.
“I included six maps, but they were not geographical maps; they were diagrams of particular countries’ foreign trade,” El Asfoury tells Zawia3. Staff insisted on examining them and first referred him to the Survey Authority. He says a former officer responsible for technical matters disliked his approach and delayed the procedures.
El Asfoury argues that legal deposit protects authors’ rights rather than the state. A number costs only EGP 20, he says, describing it as a simple administrative procedure requiring identification, a title and a summary that has been turned into a censorship tool.
Until 2023, he says, authors obtained numbers immediately with identification and a title. Afterwards, publishers were told names needed security checks against terrorism lists, extending processing to several days. Authors still found the process easier than publishers, who had to provide commercial registration, tax and union-membership documents.
He submitted two books. A novel received its number after three days, but the political work containing diagrams was referred first to surveying officials and then military Morale Affairs. It remained suspended between referrals without a decision.
Legal deposit is the statutory requirement to place specified copies with a national library to preserve intellectual production. An ISBN is a separate unique identifier used in circulation and cataloguing. Egypt’s deposit framework includes Publications Law No. 20 of 1936, Law No. 38 of 1992 amending the earlier Copyright Law, and Intellectual Property Rights Law No. 82 of 2002.
El Asfoury says publishers increasingly avoid political books because numbers may be delayed or withheld and hesitate to object publicly for fear of repercussions. He describes undisclosed restrictions on exports and international fair participation, which he estimates generate approximately 60% of publishers’ income.
Books returning from overseas fairs may be referred to the artistic works authorities, and a shipment may be rejected over a single title even though it was printed in Egypt, he says. Fear of similar consequences discourages public discussion; he criticises the absence of clear positions from some cultural bodies on bans, seizures and restrictions.
Decision No. 363 of 2017 regulates legal deposit, requiring numbers for covered publications and specified paper and electronic copies. The announced application requirements concern cover information, author, publisher, printer, author identification or an undertaking, a summary or contents and the publisher’s stamp.
The formal procedure does not prescribe reading the book or obtaining artistic-works censorship approval. Following allocation of a number, publishers must deposit five printed copies and an electronic copy within three months. Failure to deposit attracts a financial fine rather than imprisonment.
Sensitive Titles and Political Meanings
Publishers and authors have complained for years that a procedure intended to document intellectual production has sometimes obstructed books on political or sensitive subjects.
In 2017, the late Mohamed Hashem of Merit Publishing complained that the National Library required artistic-works approval before issuing a number for The Impalement: The Military and the Brotherhood Between Alliance and Confrontation. The library denied imposing that requirement and attributed it to an individual employee’s decision.
Similar complaints nevertheless recurred over reprints and poetry titles perceived as politically significant. In February 2021, poet Maher Mahran said his collection While I Am in the Cage was refused because its title and cover, drawn by Samir Abdel Ghany, were considered political. He accused the library of becoming an inquisition.
In January 2023, novelist Ahmed Abdel Halim announced that a book had been denied a number for unexplained reasons and would therefore not be printed in Egypt. In November, critic Sabry Mamdouh reported refusal of Ashraf El Khamaisi’s A Summary and Critical Edition of Ibn Hisham’s Biography, intended for El Moharer Publishing. When the author wondered whether the historical subject was the problem, the publisher applied for a new novel by him, which was also refused.
Somaya Abdel Moneim, writer and director of Aflak Printing, Publishing and Distribution, says the department has exceeded its administrative role. Her short-story collection An Empty Bed received a deposit number in 2022 after winning a Writers’ Union award. When she sought a new number under her own publishing house in 2024, she says it was refused because the title suggested sexual content, although the work did not. The application remains suspended.
Some requests are refused without specific reasons, she tells Zawia3. In other cases, publishers are merely told the rejection came from security, without an official decision or report explaining it.
Abdel Moneim says any legally required subject-specific review should be undertaken by the competent body. The problem is the deposit department evaluating titles or refusing them without a clear legal basis, rather than administering numbers.
Processing now takes three days or a week instead of minutes, she says, particularly before the Cairo International Book Fair when weekly allocations are restricted. She questions fees of EGP 20 for Egyptian authors and EGP 50 for Arab or foreign authors after the previously free service.
Promises of digitisation have not eliminated travel, especially for publishers from other governorates, who may arrive to collect numbers only to discover they have not been issued despite completing the requirements.
The department ordinarily receives only a cover, a summary of up to 100 words and basic details, not the complete book, Abdel Moneim says. Objections are therefore often based on a title or first impression rather than a reading.
She says the library does not itself conduct security enquiries into all authors, but may be notified when a name is already listed by relevant authorities, preventing a number from being issued. She considers blanket security checks outside the library’s remit.
Many problems arise from employees’ discretion rather than published decisions, she argues. Publishers are told something is a decision without being shown its text. She cites earlier requests for Word instead of PDF files, original covers on compact discs and authors’ telephone numbers despite the administrative relationship being with publishers.
The sector needs a clear framework defining the department’s powers and preventing expansion beyond its administrative role, she concludes.
Former culture minister Gihane Zaki issued Decision No. 198 of 2026 on 12 May, requiring a searchable PDF or Word file alongside printed copies for deposit procedures. The publishers’ union objected that the requirements could enable advance censorship and risk intellectual property protection and piracy. The controversy prompted the authority to amend its procedures.
“Approval Has Not Arrived” or “The Book Is Rejected”
Gamal Abdel Rahim, director of the Arab Library publishing house, says applications have become more demanding. Requirements expanded from titles and author identification to outer and inner covers, contents and introductions, sometimes a whole book, and additional undertakings where an author’s pen name differs from identification.
Numbers per application fell from ten to five and sometimes three during the pre-fair rush, he says. Processing grew from one day to at least 48 hours and sometimes a week or ten days, supposedly pending approval from an unidentified authority.
“The publisher is told only that approval has not arrived or that the book is rejected,” Abdel Rahim tells Zawia3. Without reasons, the publisher faces the author and absorbs losses after paying for editing, design and printing.
He says he has repeatedly been told that some books are referred to security bodies, with refusals after review but no official explanation or chance to amend the text. He also describes a book withdrawn from the 2025 Cairo fair despite already holding both a deposit number and ISBN.
The problem extends to unexplained restrictions on fair participation, wasting months of preparation and damaging publishers’ reputations with authors, he says. He calls for online procedures, published reasons for delays or refusals and direct communication with responsible authorities.
Yehia Fikry, director of El Maraya Publishing, describes several unexplained delays. The house is typically asked to submit the book for review without being told who reviews it or under what standards.
It has not received formal requests for approval from named bodies such as the Survey Authority or Morale Affairs. Instead, it submits a book and is later told no response has arrived. Fikry believes this suggests review of some publications before numbers are granted.
El Maraya encountered two such cases in 2025 and one in 2024, he says. They were not presented as formal refusals, but as suspended requests awaiting review. Delays were not confined to political books, and the cause was not always apparent.
Ordinary processing takes three or four days, Fikry says; exceeding that often suggests additional content-related review rather than action against the publisher. He has not tested this by submitting the same work through another house. El Maraya was also prevented from participating in the 2025 Cairo International Book Fair.
Defence and Denial
Walid Mostafa, a board member of the Egyptian Publishers Union, offers a different view. Requiring competent-authority approval for certain military, political or religious books is normal regulation, he tells Zawia3. He argues that the purpose is accuracy in sensitive works that may become references in Egypt and abroad, including through international fairs.
He says military and political works should be reviewed by the appropriate bodies, as in several Arab countries, and religious books by relevant religious institutions, since a deposit-number employee lacks the expertise to assess such subjects.
Mostafa rejects the suggestion that this is intended to obstruct publishers. He says it protects publishers, authors and readers and promotes accuracy concerning state history, policy and institutions, where mistakes could have legal or professional consequences.
In his view, limited review of sensitive subjects does not restrict creativity. He compares it with military-themed dramas produced under institutional supervision. Basic documents remain current identification, cover and contents; a complete text or PDF may be sought if the contents alone are insufficient. Numbers usually take three or four days, he says, and the Word-file controversy has ended.
The union president, however, says he has no knowledge of the practices his fellow board member describes as established. Farid Zahran, also a former presidential candidate and Egyptian Social Democratic Party chair, tells Zawia3 that none of the 120 publishing houses he referred to had filed a formal complaint with the union over refused numbers or prior approvals.
Zahran says this is the first time he has heard of such incidents. Any authors or publishers affected should make formal complaints and pursue legal channels so the union can verify, follow up and act, he adds.
Publishers describe unpublished verbal instructions and requests for summaries before numbers are issued. The National Library and Archives maintains its official position that numbers are granted without examining content or requiring security or censorship approvals.
Some publishers say the risk of later prosecution or seizure discourages applications for sensitive books despite the absence of a statutory requirement for advance content censorship.
Conflicting accounts leave a gap between legal procedures and practices described by authors and publishers. Without published explanations for refusals and delays or clearly defined administrative powers, the question remains whether legal deposit is being used for routine organisation or, in some cases, as a gateway to censorship before publication.
