Kamel Daoud, the Franco-Algerian author who recently won the Goncourt Prize for his novel Houris, is being accused by an Algerian civil war survivor of using her personal story without consent. The allegations, which include claims of breaching medical confidentiality, have sparked legal action in Algeria.
Saâda Arbane, now 30, survived a brutal attack when she was six years old during Algeria's "black decade", between 1992 and 2002.
Her village in Tiaret was raided in 1993, leaving her with a partially slit throat and damaged vocal cords. Many of her neighbours were killed, and her family was decimated
Arbane says she recognised her own life story in the novel’s protagonist, Aube. Daoud published the novel without her permission, she claims, despite her repeated refusals to let him adapt her story.
"I don't like talking about my story, it's something that disturbs me in life," said she told RFI.
Arbane also alleges that her psychiatrist, Aïcha Dahdouh – who is Daoud’s wife – violated medical confidentiality by sharing details of her treatment with her husband.
Legal battle
Daoud and Dahdouh are now facing legal action in Algeria’s Oran court. Arbane’s lawyer, Fatima Benbraham, told RFI that her client has evidence to back her claims.
"If the evidence did not exist, the claim would have been inadmissible," said Benbraham. "My client's rights will never remain violated, by anyone. We want justice."
The complaints, filed in August, accuse the couple of using Arbane’s personal story without consent and violating Algerian laws on medical confidentiality.
“Right after the publication of the book, we filed two complaints against Kamel Daoud and his wife, Aïcha Dahdouh, the psychiatrist who treated the victim,” Benbraham told journalists this week.
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Horrific story
In a recent interview with an Algerian television channel, Arbane described the similarities between her life and the novel’s plot.
These include her physical scars, a tattoo, her medical history, and her personal experiences, such as her love of horses and her career as an equestrian champion.
Arbane says she was shocked by what she read in Houris.
Daoud’s publisher, Gallimard, has denied the allegations, calling them "defamatory attacks" against the author.
In a statement, Gallimard said the novel’s plot and characters are "purely fictional", despite being inspired by the events of Algeria’s civil war, during which up to 200,000 people were killed.
Daoud himself has dismissed the claims as part of "violent defamatory campaigns organised by media close to the Algerian regime".
He also noted that Houris is banned in Algeria.
The head of the Gallimard was forbidden from presenting his works at the Algiers International Book Fair, which ended on 17 November.
Arbane’s lawyer has further accused Daoud of defaming victims of terrorism and violating Algeria’s national reconciliation laws, which prohibit publishing details about the so-called black decade.
Despite the controversy, Houris was widely regarded as a frontrunner for the Goncourt Prize, which it won earlier this month.
The complaints were filed in August, before Daoud won the prize. "We didn't want to talk about it so it wouldn't be said that we wanted to disrupt the author's nomination," said Benbraham.
Conservative background
Daoud, who was born in Algeria, initially supported Islamist parties before breaking ties and becoming a columnist.
His first novel, The Meursault Investigation, was published in 2013. He moved to France in 2023 and has often sparked controversy with his outspoken views.
For a decade, he wrote for the French weekly magazine Le Point, frequently facing criticism for what some called anti-Arab racism.
In 2016, he published an op-ed in The New York Times titled The Sexual Misery of the Arab World, following reports of sexual assaults by Arab migrants in Cologne, Germany.
He has also been linked with French far-right intellectuals.
