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Syrian president turns to books

A brief news item about Syrian president Bashar al-Assad turned up on Middle East Online today. It seems he’s appointed an adviser — of the literary sort.

His “literary adviser” is Colette Khoury, a 75-year-old writer who created a stir in 1959 when she published Ayyam Maahou (The Days With Him), a novel “in which she wrote openly about love — the first time a woman had come out so boldly on a subject considered taboo in conservative Syrian society.”

In her new role, Khoury will be responsible for … well, something or other.

As Middle East Online reports, “The official [who made the announcement] did not elaborate on what would be her exact task as literary adviser to the president.”

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Click here for the Middle East Online story

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