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PALFEST 2012 Press Release |
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PALFEST
2012
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The Palestine Festival of Literature is pleased to announce it has been granted permission to travel to Gaza by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Palfest will depart for Rafah on Saturday morning. In Gaza the Festival will run a series of free public events and workshops.
PalFest will hold its closing event in Cairo at the Rawabet Space for Performing Arts. The event will take the form of a report back from the participants on what they saw and heard and discussed in Gaza. The PalFest Team says: “We believe in the fundamental unity between Egypt and Palestine and hope that these events will forge new connections between the people of Gaza and Cairo”.
The Rawabet event will be at 8pm on Friday May 11, and all are welcome.
PALFEST Founder: Ahdaf Soueif
PALFEST 2012 Participants:
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Susan Abulhawa's response to Halper |
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100 Most Powerful Arab Women 2012 |
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This year's list of 100 Most Powerful Arab Women includes the following writers:
No. 21: Nawal Saadawi
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Nawal Al Saadawi is famous for her 60-year long campaign against female genital mutilation.
The Egyptian feminist, writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist has written more than 70 books tackling problems faced by women in Egypt.
In 1972, Al Saadawi published Women and Sex, for which she lost her job as a director at the Egyptian Ministry of Health, and in the 1980s she was jailed for three months for “crimes against the state”.
She is currently writing a novel about the Egyptian revolution.
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No. 61: Ahdaf Soueif
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Ahdaf Soueif is one the Arab world’s most internationally acclaimed novelists.
Her debut novel, In the Eye of the Sun, was published in 1993, and was followed by The Map of Love, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The Map of Love sold over a million copies and was translated into 21 languages.
In 2008, Soueif launched the first Palestine Festival of Literature.
Her most recent work, Cairo: My City, Our Revolution, chronicled the eighteen days she spent in Tahrir Square in early 2011.
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No. 76: Fatema Mernissi
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Fatema Mernissi has published several books on the position of women in the rapidly changing Muslim communities in Morocco.
In 1975 she published the result of her first fieldwork: Beyond the Veil: Male-Female Dynamics in Modern Muslim Society.
Much of her work has been translated in many languages and is widely read, also in Islamic countries.
She has served as a member in many national, pan-Arabic and international forums on women and development in the Islamic world.
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No. 89:Rajaa Al Sanea
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Rajaa Al Sanea shot to fame in 2005 when her book, Girls Of Riyadh, was published in Lebanon. Two years later it was translated into English and before long was being nominated for awards across the globe.
In 2009, it was long-listed for the Dublin Literary Award. It became a bestseller across much of the Middle East and continues to be popular across the world. It was, however, not gladly received by everyone.
In her native country, Saudi Arabia, it was immediately banned and there remains a distinctive divide in opinion of the novel, which was heavily critricised in the Saudi media. While Al Sanea is held as a role model by liberals, the conservative sections of Saudi society have heavily criticised the book for being unconventional.
Al Sanea, who comes from a family of doctors, is now a practising dentist in Chicago. Rumour has it that she is currently penning her next novel.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 10 March 2012 08:09 |
