He moved to the Netherlands in 1990,To live with his new family after he met the Dutch lady In Cairo, who became the mother of his children and thy married .He settled in Amsterdam, where he has lived and worked since. He has, in his own words, ‘attained a certain amount of fame’ and has been active in the media, contributing to cultural and political debates, such as the consequences of the war in Iraq and taking part in a televised debate on censorship alongside the celebrated Arab poets Mahmoud Darwish and Adunis.