Villa Escamp Literair: Abeer Soliman and Iman Humaydan

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Two writers from the Arab World, Abeer Soliman from Egypt, and Iman Humaydan from Lebanon. Both are socially engaged, and concerned with the position of women in their countries. Abeer Soliman has been staying in the Netherlands since December, and is surprised about the Western image of women in the Arab world. Scarf or no scarf? Oppressed or not? Iman Humaydan is a writer who also works as a researcher, journalist and an environmental and human rights activist. For the months of January and February she is a writer in residence in The Hague, as a guest of Kosmopolis The Hague (www.kosmopolisdenhaag.nl). In this period she gets to know the city, and the Dutch perspective on her country. Is she surprised about our ideas on women in the Arab world? Iman en Abeer will read from their work. They will talk with each other and with the audience. The programme will be  moderated by Djûke Poppinga, a literary translator Arabic-Dutch. The conversation will be in English, when necessary translated into Arabic and Dutch.

Villa Escamp is on the corner of the Leyweg and the  Melis Stokelaan, Leyweg 795, 2545 HA Den Haag, Reservation is necessary, through info@villaescamp.nl or +31 (0) 70 359 57 79 (Wednesdays through Sundays 12.00-17.00 hrs).

Information

Date and time Sunday 23 January 2011 from 15:00 to 17:00 hrs
Location Villa Escamp

Line-up

Iman Humaydan

(Libanon, 1956) broke through internationally in 2004 with her debut novel B as in Beirut. The story is told by four different women, who have to learn to cope with the consequences of the civil war. The most penetrating is the story of Warda, who goes crazy with grief and guilt-feelings because her father dies in a bomb attack and she loses her little daughter on top of that. In her second book Wild Mulberries (2008) Iman Humaydan describes life in a small Lebanese village in the 1930s. The main character Sarah is a young girl dreaming of a better future and a meeting with her mother, who fled the village and its patriarchal rules when Sarah was small. Iman Humaydan likewise grew up in a small Lebanese village, but in a tolerant family. Her third novel Hayawat Okhra (Other Lives) came out in 2010. It recounts the life of a woman coming back home after so many years of exile to rediscover her city and past. Hayawat Okhra will be published in English and French by the end of 2011. She studied sociology in Beirut and works as a researcher, journalist, and in launching and implementing development projects in Lebanese rural areas.
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Abeer Soliman

(Egypt, 1977) made her debut in 2010 with Diary of an Old Spinster, which was such a success that it was sold out very soon. In the book – based on the blog of the same name that she wrote – Soliman tells how it is to live as a single woman in Egypt. ‘It is the diary of a liberated woman, seen from the perspective of my generation,’ she says in the introduction. Her aim is primarily to open the eyes of her countrymen, who often condemn single women in word and deed. Elderly single women without children often face problems in Egyptian society. According to official figures, in 2009 2,700 Egyptian women committed suicide because they couldn’t cope any longer. In addition to being a writer Abeer Soliman is a columnist with the newspaper Baladna and a business development manager. Moreover, she is working as a literary agent for Noon Organisation.
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Djûke Poppinga

(Luxemburg, 1956) is involved in the festival since 2007, as a producer and as an advisor for Arabic literature. She completed her Master’s degree in Arabic and Turkish literature at the University of Amsterdam and stayed in the Arab world for several years. In the 80’s she started translating Arabic novels into Dutch. Since then she has translated more than thirty titles among which several novels by the Egtyptian Nobelprize-winner Nagib Mahfuz and the complete works of the Lebanese author Hanan al-Shaykh. In autumn 2010 Gate of the sun by Ilyas Khuri and Wanna be a bride by Ghada Abd El-Aal were published in Dutch translation. In 2005 she received (with Richard van Leeuwen) the ‘Fonds voor de Letteren Vertaalprijs’.

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