Tazmamart, cell number 10

Author's name: Ahmed Al-Marzouqi Publisher: Al-Markaz Al-Thaqafi Al-Arabi Year of publication: 2012 Brief about the novel: When we face each other and each of us is within a step of the other, I stopped, and she stopped, she opened her eyes looking at me like she was stunned, I tried to smile, so I gathered my scattered mind and said all at once in a hoarse voice from suffocation: My beloved mother... how are you? The poor woman screamed a single cry that hurt the ears of the breath of dawn from its intensity, and she shouted while gasping in a painful, tearful cry: My son... my son... Ahmed... she collapsed into my arms and embraced me with all her strength while sobbing, groaning, and suffering, regardless of her brothers' pleas as they begged her to come to her senses so she wouldn't increase her heart's suffering. Nearly two decades have passed, and the Moroccan authorities strongly deny the existence of a slow death detention on their land in the desert outskirts called Tazmamart, buried alive in those dark, terrifying regions, where fifty-eight officers and non-commissioned officers were buried alive due to unintentional involvement in two failed coup attempts (the events of Skhirat on July 10, 1971, and the Royal Boeing plane incident on August 16, 1972). After a bitter detention under horrific, hellish conditions lasting more than twenty-eight years, Tazmamart finally released what was inside it, throwing out twenty-eight alive, while it kept in its sands the remains of thirty-two victims. Lieutenant Ahmed Al-Marzouqi, resident of cell number 10, testifies on behalf of his surviving and fallen friends.