page_title: Riyadh International Book Fair
section_title: 2019
hierarchical_section_title: Riyadh International Book Fair / History / 2019
caption_attribution_description: العربية: واجهة كلية الحقوق والعلوم السياسية في جامعة الملك سعود، من تصويري.
context_page_description: The Riyadh International Book Fair is an annual book fair in Saudi Arabia. It lasts 11 days and regularly attracts over a half million visitors. The fair is used to showcase Saudi government policy, and it has been a locus of political power struggles with the government. Hundreds of publishers sell pre-approved books, and some black-market books. Writers take part in literary events. Invited speakers and the public discuss intellectual and social issues. Disagreements sometimes go beyond the bounds of debate, with speakers being shouted down and surrounded by protestors, and arrests of speakers and protestors; physical assaults are rare but not unknown.
  The fair is a focus for political conflict in Saudi Arabia, though some local media sources deny there is political debate. The fair is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Information, and has been regulated by the religious police; the two have clashed at the fair, and religious police have been limited to more advisory roles. Some Saudi clerics issued a fatwa criticizing the book fair during the 2012 fair. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi said of the intellectual climate: "It's like McCarthyism in the 1950s".
context_section_description: Anas al-Mazrou, a law professor at King Saud University, was arrested for speaking of the detention of women's rights activists in Saudi Arabia during one of these panel discussions at the 2019 fair. "No one dares to ask, and I am not challenging anybody, including those who are sitting here on stage, to ask about the human rights activists," he said. He named four people as having "contributed to spread the idea of human rights... I will give you an idea and I invite everybody to think about it; the idea of the nation being the guardian of itself, [such that the guardian] is the people, not the ruler" No information was given on where he was taken, and was described on 9 September as having had no contact with his family during this detainment. The video went viral.
  The Simon Wiesenthal Center again complained that the fair sold anti-semitic texts, including Hitler's Mein Kampf. They said that "Of the six Arab Book Fairs we annually monitor, antisemitic texts are sadly the most numerous in Riyadh", and asked the Saudi government to apply the same measures to "all forms of hate, on the same level as offences to Islam".
caption: The College of Law and Political Science at King Saud University; Anas al-Mazrou, who was arrested shortly after speaking at the fair, lectured here
exif: {"Image Tag 0x000B": "Windows Photo Editor 10.0.10011.16384", "Image ImageWidth": "3264", "Image ImageLength": "2448", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "Apple", "Image Model": "iPhone 6 Plus", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)", "Image DateTime": "2017:12:18 20:41:17", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Padding": "[]", "Image ExifOffset": "2420", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[24, 43, 14/5]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "E", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[46, 36, 5127/100]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "141419/218", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[12, 46, 5899/100]", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "23/100", "GPS GPSImgDirectionRef": "T", "GPS GPSImgDirection": "10887/2143", "GPS GPSDestBearingRef": "T", "GPS GPSDestBearing": "10887/2143", "GPS GPSDate": "2017:12:18", "GPS Tag 0x001F": "5", "Image GPSInfo": "5064", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5470", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6320", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/1276", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "32", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2017:12:18 15:46:59", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2017:12:18 15:46:59", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "15238/1477", "EXIF ApertureValue": "7983/3509", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "38438/3865", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "83/20", "EXIF SubjectArea": "[1631, 1223, 1795, 1077]", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "823", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "823", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3264", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2448", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "29", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF LensSpecification": "[83/20, 83/20, 11/5, 11/5]", "EXIF LensMake": "Apple", "EXIF LensModel": "iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4236"}