Bahaa Taher(1935-2022)
- Writer
Bahaa Taher was born 1935, in Giza (Greater Cairo), to parents from the Karnak village in the Luxor governorate, Upper Egypt. He graduated from the literature department at the Cairo University and has, since his student days, been strongly involved in the left-wing literary circles.
Taher was one of the notable writers of Egypt's Gallery 68 movement which was linking literature with the politics of that time. He began his career working as a social commentator and story teller at the national radio; although in the 1970s he was fired for his leftist stances and banned from voicing opinion, writing and publishing in Egypt.
In the 1970s he was fired for his leftist stances and banned from voicing opinion, writing and publishing in Egypt.
"Back then, Egypt's Minister of Information followed a very clear rule 'those who are not with us, are against us' and apparently I was not considered to be with them," Bahaa Taher says, recalling the years he was forced to live on a minimum salary and abandon publishing.