Tahar Djaout (11 January 1954 – 2 June 1993) was an Algerian journalist, poet, and fiction writer. He was assassinated in 1993 by the Armed Islamic Group.

Early life

He was born in 1954 in Oulkhou, a village in the Kabylie region. After university he worked as a journalist for Algérie Actualité, and by the late 1980s, he became one of Algeria's foremost literary talents.

Assassination

He was assassinated by the Armed Islamic Group because of his support of secularism and opposition to what he considered fanaticism. He was attacked on 26 May 1993 as he was leaving his home in Algiers, Algeria. He died on 2 June, after lying in a coma for a week. One of his attackers professed that he was murdered because he "wielded a fearsome pen that could have an effect on Islamic sectors." After his death the BBC made a documentary about him entitled 'Shooting the Writer', introduced by Salman Rushdie.

Work