While watching a television report about the Reading Day events held along Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis last April, Badreddin Warfali, a medical student, thought of doing the same in the Libyan capital of Tripoli where he lives. He posted his idea on Facebook and his friends put their heads together to bring it to life.

While watching a television report about the Reading Day events held along Avenue Habib Bourguiba in Tunis last April, Badreddin Warfali, a medical student, thought of doing the same in the Libyan capital of Tripoli where he lives. He posted his idea on Facebook and his friends put their heads together to bring it to life.

“We established a club for reading fans last April and agreed to read a book chosen in advance of every week and then came together at the club every Saturday to discuss it,” Bader says. “Our weekly meetings became regular and the number of the club members rose to 40.”

One club member Mohammed Arrzaqani says “I have joined the club because it is a good opportunity to exchange views and establish a culture of dialogue and freedom of expression.”

His 16-year-old colleague Rawia Kikli says, “I used to silently follow the members’ dialogues via their pages on Facebook and then decided to join them. It is a wonderful and ideal place for self-development and building character.”

Homeless

‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell and ‘Monkeys’ and ‘Knights without Battle’ by Libyan writer Sadeq Naihoum are some of the books read and discussed by the club members.  But finding an actual place to meet is not always so easy, as the club has no official headquarters.  They held their first meeting in a public park, then moved around to different locations before finally ending up at a cultural center in the Ministry of Culture (MoC), a journey they describe as tiring, especially since most “cultural centers are deserted and cannot be used.”

“We have received promises to be given headquarters and are still waiting. We have no official headquarters due to lack of financial resources and the Ministry of Culture is unable to provide it since many civil society organizations have been established since the liberation and they all need headquarters,” explains Ahmed Samir Sharef, a founding member of the club.

Good ideas spread

However, that did not prevent the spread of the idea in other parts of the country, which is experiencing a state of open mindedness since  the fall of Gaddafi.

After several months, Doctor Sami Abed, in coordination with Badr and his colleagues, opened a club in the city of Sabratha, 80 kilometers west of Tripoli, and medical student Najib Tarhouni followed suit in Benghazi, Eastern Libya.

“I got to know members of the Tripoli club and participated in their discussions via Skype. I noticed that some of those who joined their Facebook page were residents of my city, so I agreed with them to meet in weekly or monthly sessions,” Tarhouni says.

Ministerial welcoming

Minister of Culture Habib Ameen expressed his pleasure with cultural organizations such as reading clubs which contribute to the dissemination of knowledge. “I support these organizations through the ministry and hope that cultural clubs spread in all cities because our society needs them after decades of neglect practiced by the former regime,” adds Ameen, whose ministry opened a number of cultural centers in several Libyan cities.

The minister’s statement was welcomed by the club members wishing to turn their club into an official body registered by MoC under the name of “The Core – Reading Fan Club.”

Recycling books

A number of the club members engage in cultural activities that were not significantly common under Gaddafi and his police system that felt threatened by youth gatherings.

Among these activities is the Used Books Festival which began on April 21 in Tripoli under the slogan “Give Your Book A New Life” where people donated their used books instead of shelving them, in order to create a mobile library that travels throughout the country to lend out books.

Inspired by the revolution

Writer Nahla Arabi says the idea and desire to open cultural clubs existed before the revolution, but was not materialized primarily for security reasons since they were “a source of doubt and suspicion” for the former regime that would accuse their members of creating secret organizations.

Arabi added that other reasons related to the social environment that did not encourage or call for collective work, explained that the revolution inspired a kind of cultural movement and gave hope, which boosted enthusiasm to create cultural projects and clubs and create a space of freedom, where reading fans of all ages, backgrounds, nationalities and intellectual persuasions meet to engage in dialogue and debate.