Fixdit - about the legendary Nawal el Saadawi

Live podcast recording from writers collective Fixdit, about the legendary Nawal el Saadawi: writer, physician and feminist in 20th century Egypt.

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 June 2022 22:05 tot 23:05 uur
Location Paard Kleine Zaal
Price 29,50
15,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Writer, doctor and feminist in 20th-century Egypt - with Annelies Verbeke, Jannah Loontjens, Rachida Lamrabet and Gamal Fouad. 

Legendary Egyptian author Nawal el Saadawi passed away in March 2021 at the age of 90. Hadn't you heard of her yet? Then this event is the perfect chance to correct that oversight!

Nawal el Saadawi is also known as "the Simone de Beauvoir of the Arab world," and her work ruffled a lot of feathers. She was a doctor and an activist who wrote unabashedly about her life as an emancipated, feminist woman in an Egypt in which far from everyone shared her opinions. It's time to shine a spotlight on her groundbreaking work, and we let Annelies Verbeke and Jannah Loontjens of the Fixdit collective do the honours!

For this event, which is also a live recording of a new podcast episode, authors and Fixdit founders Annelies Verbeke and Jannah Loontjens embarked on a discussion with the Belgian author and lawyer Rachida Lamrabet and the Dutch writer and visual artist Gamal Fouad. They discussed Nawal el Saadawi's influential work and in particular her novel The Fall of the Imam.

About Fixdit
The writers' collective Fixdit is committed to raising the profile of work by female authors that deserves a wider readership. In collaboration with the literary magazine De Gids, Loontjens and Verbeke produce the Fixdit podcast series Moderne klassikers (Modern Classics), in which they give exposure to literary classics written by women.

Fixdit & Writers Unlimited
Fixdit and Writers Unlimited have joined forces to bring attention to international female authors who deserve a spot in the literary canon. November 2021 Fixdit and Writers Unlimited jointly created the episode Bibi Koetis voor altijd (Bibi Koetis For Ever), about the Indonesian author Lin Scholte Previously we jointly created an episode about Dutch-Indonesian author Lin Scholte (1921-1997), with Annelies Verbeke, Jannah Loontjens, Vilan van de Loo (writer and editor of Lin Scholte's collected works) and writer Gustaaf Peek. View here the video registration of the live podcast recording that took place at Nationaal Museum Sophiahof - van Indië tot nu (The Hague). The conversation is in Dutch.

Reading tips:
The entire oevre of Nawal el Saadawi, especially The Fall of the Imam, Memoirs of a Woman Doctor and Woman at Point Zero.

Dutch spoken.

Line-up

Gamal Fouad

(Egypt, 1976) is a writer and, together with Claire Fons, forms the visual artist duo Felix & Mumford. They have exhibited in Berlin and Bologna, and their work was acquired for the collection of the Centraal Museum Utrecht. His first book Oneindig eiland (Infinite Island) was published in 2016, a hilarious novel about a man who gets invited to teach a writing course on a tropical island, even though he’s never been published himself. Fouad evokes the atmosphere on the island with masterly precision, and is deftly comic in telling the story of the teacher and participants. His second work De voorhuidenverzamelaar (The Foreskin Collector, 2018) was nominated for the Biesheuvel Award for best short stories. Fouad draws on his own youth in Alexandria as well as his experiences as an artist in Berlin for his stories. Fouad works highly associatively to create these symbolic narratives populated by archetypes.
20221013171902 1

Rachida Lamrabet

(Morocco, 1970) is a fiction and theatre author, lawyer and teacher. She won the 2008 Flemish debut prize for her novel Vrouwland (Women's Country; 2007) about migrant youths dreaming of a better life. In 2006, her story Mercedes 207 was awarded the Kif Kif Literature Prize. Her short story collection Een kind van God (A Child of God) was published in 2008, followed by the novel De man die niet begraven wilde worden (The Man Who Didn't Want to be Buried), awarded with the Ultima, the Flemish state prize for culture. As in her debut, issues such as identity, religion, migration and the position of minorities play an important role. Her novel Vertel het iemand (Tell Somebody, 2018) deals with the life of a Berber boy and the deliberately concealed role played by Moroccan soldiers in the First World War. Lamrabet is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to raise awareness of gender inequality in literature. She is a practice assistant in discrimination law at the Legal Clinic of the Law Faculty of the Ghent University and also teaches at the Odisee College in Brussels.
20211118161700 1

Jannah Loontjens

(1974) is a writer and philosopher. She grew up in the Netherlands and Sweden and has published four novels as well as poetry and essay collections. Her novel Schuldig: Een verkenning van mijn geweten (Guilty: An exploration of my conscience, 2020) is an essayistic and philosophial confession and personal quest for the origin of her feelings of guilt. Loontjens is a member of the writers' collective Fixdit, which aims to increase diversity in the literary world. By way of podcasts, essays, open letters and conversations, Fixdit wants the raise awareness of gender inequality in the world of letters and expand the canon with work by important female authors. She also writes opinion pieces for Dutch newspspers and a column for Filosofie Magazine, in which she discusses philosophers that influenced her thinking and writing. She reviews poetry for Awater. Besides her writerly activities, Loontjens has taught philosophy and literary analysis at Dutch universities and  arts institutes.
20211103110053 1

Annelies Verbeke

(Belgium, 1976) writes novels, film scripts and plays. Her debut novel Slaap! (Sleep!) was published in 2003, followed by three novels (Reus, Vissen redden, Dertig dagen); four collections of short stories; a collection of journalism pieces, Wakker (Awake, together with photographer Charlie De Keersmaecker); and the graphic novella Tirol Inferno, written in iambic pentameter and rhyme and co-created with illustrator Klaas Verplancke. Her work has been translated into 26 languages and won various prizes, such as the F. Bordewijk Prize, the Opzij Literature Prize, the J.M.A. Biesheuvel Prize, and the NRC Handelsblad Readers Prize. She has also written several plays and film scripts, and worked with various theatre companies, especially Rotterdam-based Wunderbaum. In 2023, she published short stories in Koude soep (Cold Soup) and JIJ (You), an anthology of you-stories. January 2024 will see the premiere of Wunderbaum speel live (online gaat het mis), a theatre production by Wunderbaum with a stage text by Annelies Verbeke.
20211101165525 1

Discover

20 May 2026

Get your 2027 tickets!

Get your Early Bird tickets for the big festival nights, Friday & Saturday Night Unlimited!