Public Reading of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s ‘Guantanamo Diary’

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University students and faculty are staging a 12-hour public reading of Mohamedou Ould Slahi’s book “Guantanamo Diary” to highlight the secret world that the U.S. has created there.

The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 2, at The Graduate School Commons at Seabury Hall, 2122 Sheridan Road on the University’s Evanston campus.

Ould Slahi has been at the Guantanamo prison camp for 13 years without being charged with any crime, and he has written about experiencing the full range of tortures and humiliations that have made the place infamous to many.

His diary is an account of the human side of life at Guantanamo. It documents his own ordeals but also examines the part played by the guards, lawyers, bureaucrats and others who also live or work there.

Students, faculty and others will read the entire book in 15-minute segments over 12 hours. The book is a crucial document in recent American history, and the reading will stir conversations about the moral, legal and political implications of American torture.

The public reading is co-sponsored by the department of political Science; department of religious studies; department of anthropology; the Buffett Institute for Global Studies; Center for Legal Studies; the International Studies Program; the Program in Middle East and North African Studies and the Program in American Studies.

Those interested in reading may sign up here for a 15-minute timeslot. A Facebook event at ‪on.fb.me/1ILfxeQ.