By Laila Hourani, Freemuse’s MENA researcher.
In early 2026, Freemuse published its annual report on the State of Artistic Freedom documenting attacks on artistic freedom worldwide throughout 2025. This update examines developments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the first half of 2026.
Six months into the year, artists and the independent civil society organisations that support them in the Arab region continue to resist the same trends described in the Freemuse’s State of Artistic Freedom 2026 report. These trends are characterised by a combination of external aggression and wars, including the recent affecting Lebanon in the context of the 2026 USA–Iran[1] war, and crackdowns on free speech by national authoritarian regimes. Between these two dynamics, artists continue to show resilience, finding creative ways to engage with devastated communities and refusing to be silenced.
Lebanon: A Vibrant Cultural Life Disrupted
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israel’s military attack on Lebanon killed at least 4,324 people and injured more than 12,200. It also displaced over 1.2 million people, the majority of them during the first week of the attack, and caused massive destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Among the many civilians killed was Lebanese visual artist Ali Sbeity, who was killed in March in an Israeli airstrike. Sbeity was known for his paintings of rural southern Lebanon, a landscape he is never to depict again.
Lebanese poet Khartoum Salma was killed with her husband on 8 April. Their bodies were found under the remains of their home after intensive Israeli bombing of Beirut. The loss of artists’ lives, alongside those of other civilians, tragic as it is, was not the only impact of this war on Lebanon’s artistic community. The war also brought polarisation, strain and disruption to the vibrant arts and cultural life that Lebanon has historically fostered.
One example is Lebanese rapper Jaafar Iskandar (Jaafar Al-Taffar), who was detained in March by Lebanese Army Intelligence after being summoned for questioning over a rap video criticising the President and Prime Minister for their stance towards the United States and Israel during Israel’s war on Lebanon.
Occupied Gaza and the West Bank: Art as Witness
In Gaza, despite the officially announced ceasefire at the end of 2025, conditions remain life threatening and dehumanising for those who have survived the genocide and forced displacements, including artists. Continuing strikes by the Israeli occupation army, along with the siege, blockade of borders, and denial of access for international journalists and aid workers, have left artists trapped alongside more than two million other Palestinians, facing the constant threat of death, and living without the basic conditions necessary for a dignified existence, let alone for artistic creation. These conditions have also left them with little prospect for a future.
The experience of Palestinian poet and writer Nima Hasan reflects both the human and artistic impact of the genocide on Gaza’s cultural community. After the destruction of her home in Rafah, she endured constant forced displacements across southern Gaza while continuing to write poetry and document life under siege from temporary shelters. Now living in a tent in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, she has repeatedly appealed for permission to leave Gaza and reunite with her two children in Jordan, who were evacuated through humanitarian channels due to serious health conditions.
Despite these inhumane conditions, Palestinian artists continue to carve out ways to express themselves, memorialise their stories, and safeguard their cultural heritage. Visual artist Marah Khaled Za’aneen turned her tent into a gallery, displaying her paintings across the “walls” and “ceiling”. The few heritage specialists remaining in Gaza have posted videos of themselves clearing rubble from some of the world’s oldest heritage sites with only their bare hands and nylon bags, as the siege has left them without access to proper equipment.
In the Occupied West Bank in February 2026, Oscar-winning Palestinian film director Hamdan Ballal, whose case features in the Freemuse State of Artistic Freedom 2026 report, told Al-Jazeera that Israeli settlers who had attacked him the previous year had once again targeted his home and family, despite an Israeli court order restricting non-residents from entering the area. Ballal stated that, rather than enforcing the order, Israeli occupation forces raided the family home, arrested four of his relatives and left another hospitalised. He described the incident as part of an escalation in settler violence and harassment in the occupied West Bank. The attacks on Balal are believed to be retaliation for the international success of his documentary No Other Land, which documents illegal settler violence against Palestinians.
Morrocco: Generation Z Protests and the Targeting of Artists
The crackdown on artists associated with the Generation Z-driven protest movement advocating democratic and social change in Morocco has intensified in recent months, in a context of increasing restrictions on public space. Moroccan lawyers launched a nationwide strike in protest against a proposed law that they, along with human rights organisations, say threatens the independence of the legal profession and weakens fair trial guarantees by expanding state influence over its governance and disciplinary processes.
The strike has had a direct impact on the case of Moroccan filmmaker and rapper El Mahdi Lyoubi (Black Wind), who was detained in July over the lyrics of one of his songs and related social media posts. His trial was recently postponed, while the ongoing nationwide lawyers’ strike meant he appeared before the prosecutor without legal representation.[2] More than 500 artists and film professionals have called for his release.
In another case, Moroccan rapper Souhaib Qabli was sentenced to eight months in prison after being convicted of insulting a constitutional body. Qabli is known for songs criticising Morocco’s ties with Israel, as well as government corruption and restrictions on freedom of expression—concerns that have also been echoed by Morocco’s Generation Z protest movement.
In neighbouring Algeria, poet and activist Mohamed Tadjadit, known as the “poet of the Hirak”, remained imprisoned in after an appeals court upheld a two-year sentence against him on terrorism-related charges linked to his activism.
Egypt: Artists Under Continued Restrictions
Similarly in Egypt, the authorities continue to keep a close eye on the slightest sign of dissent, particularly by former political prisoners. Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma, who spent years in prison during the crack down on figures associated with the Arab Spring, was sentenced to one year in prison with hard labour after writing an article on the political role of prisons and publishing Facebook posts criticising prison conditions. In early July, a misdemeanour court upheld the sentence on appeal following charges of spreading false news and disturbing public peace.
Egyptian filmmaker and screenwriter Omar Salah Marei remained in prolonged pretrial detention after being forcibly disappeared for six days and subsequently brought before the Supreme State Security Prosecution on charges of spreading false news based on his social media posts. His detention, which has been repeatedly renewed and was most recently extended in July, has prompted international calls for his release including from Freemuse.
Together, these developments demonstrate that artistic freedom in the region cannot be understood in isolation from the wider erosion of human rights, humanitarian protection and civic space or from the growing impunity for mass violations of international law. Artists are not only among those affected by these crises; they are also among those resisting them by documenting events, preserving collective memory and continuing to create despite extraordinary risks.
[1] A six-month overview on the state of artistic freedoms in Iran, written by Freemuse Iran researcher, will follow.
[2] Lyoubi was released pending trial on 31 July with a court hearing set for 2 October. See www.freemuse.org for updates.
