The session has started. Join us with your questions.
Answer
-
Name
Fatima
-
Profession
Question
Dear Ahdaf,
Do you think novelists have a political role to play and, if so, how should they employ their narratives to spread their political message?
Thank you.
Answer
Probably the toughest question. Yes, I think they do - but only if they feel the issues. I think you write about things that move you. So if you're moved by a political injustice you write about that. You can't really deliberately write fiction with the purpose of spreading a message because it won't be any good as fiction and therefore will not enter the heart of the reader. But if you are a novelist and are moved to write about a political matter and do it well then you stand a chance of influencing people.
Thank you.
Name
Amira
-
Profession
Question
Hi Mrs Soueif,
What is your opinion about the Islamization and militarization of the Palestinian resistance movement? Do you think support for suicide bombings is widespread among the occupied Palestinians?
Answer
I think everybody UNDERSTANDS the phenomenon of suicide bombing. Whether they support it or not is a different matter.
First: I guess everybody regrets the loss of life of these young people.
Second, there are varied opinions about the targets. I think most people do not have a problem with targetting military personnel. When civilians are targetted it becomes problematic. Personally I think civilians should never be targetted by anybody - including the IDF, the 'coalition' forces etc.
Third, there is the question of whether suicide bombing is an effective strategy to realise Palestinian aims? This is a very big question and I genuinely don't have an answer to it.
Regarding Islamisation and militarisation - one could say that the Intifada would have been more effective if it had remained stone-throwing. Also the Islamisation effectively cancels out the perception of Christian Palestinians as equally part of the struggle - which they very much are. It also plays into the hands of the Zionists and the American Christian Right who always portray this as a religious conflict and would very much like to subsume resistance to Israeli policy under the heading of anti-semitism.
When all is said and done, the issues in Palestine are political and therefore we would have more clarity if they were always discussed in political terms rather than becoming part of religious discourse. But that's the trend in the whole world and it's what we now have to live and work with.
Thank you.
Name
sayaj
-
Profession
film student
Question
What is the reason that as yet no creative work based on the Qur'an has been written? Is this due to religious restrictions or a lack of brave and creative minds?
Answer
What do you mean by creative work based on the Qur'an? There is for example a great deal of calligraphy. Also, I would say that traditional music (think of Umm Kulthum for example) is very much influenced by Quranic modes of recitation. I would say that possibly Arabic poetry as well exhibits signs of influence of the Quran. But I don't quite see how a work of fiction, for example, can be based on the Qur'an? The Qur'an is there, within the narrative, as a great source of ideas and emotions in the society being depicted.
Thank you.
Name
A. Halawani
-
Profession
Question
Dear Ahdaf, As-Salamu Alaykum. Indeed, your visit to Israel was controversial! A great number of the Egyptian elite condemned that visit and claimed that it would help nothing but the normalization with Israel. While others saw it differently. Now, after about four years, how do you see that visit? In addition, if you are commissioned again by the Guardian to go to Israel, will you go then? Thanks in advance.
Answer
Hi. Well, as I said at the time I agree absolutely that relationships with Israel should not become 'normal' until the Palestinian question is resolved justly. I believe that my visit had nothing to do with 'normalisation'. I saw it like this: if your brother is in jail and you go to visit and tell the world what is happening to him then that is a good thing to do even though you have to go through entry procedures with the jailer at the door.
Where it becomes 'normalisation' is when you have a coffee with the jailer or engage with the jailer in any way that lends him legitimacy. I went to the Palestinians and I wrote about them. The Palestinians themselves said they hated being so isolated from the Arab world and they needed the exposure.
I wrote about the situation there - and I brought to that writing both my skills as a novelist and - my heart. I know from the feedback I received - and from the degree of debate in the Guardian about whether to publish the piece or not - that my writing hit the mark. Quite a few (good patriotic) Arab intellectuals did support my visit - and that gave me comfort.
I did go back - at the injvitation of Dar al-Nadwa in Bethlehem and BirZeit University. And I did write about it again for the Guardian: three years after my first piece are things better or worse? And, of course, they were worse.
In a way, I actually think that everybody in the whole world who can manage it should go to Palestine. Should go, through the Jordan route, put absolutely nothing into the Israeli economy, visit the Palestinians, offer them every support possible, economic and moral and professional, break the terrible siege they are living under and come out and tell the world what they saw.
Tell the world CONSTANTLY about what is happening there. Imagine if a few million people poured in to the West bank and East Jerusalem and sat in houses that were going to be demolished or held onto olive trees that were going to be uprooted! Imagine if the world SAW the solidarity that we all feel for the Palestinians taking concrete form.
Thank you.
Name
Isabelle
- United Kingdom
Profession
Question
How did you get published? Did you have an agent, or did you write a book proposal, or did you just send an unsolicited manuscript to publishers and one of them snapped it up?
Answer
I was staying with a friend of my mother's in London. She knew someone who wanted to learn a little Arabic because he was writing a book on the Middle East (This was back in 1979). So I went to give him Arabic lessons and after a couple of lessons, as he was a writer, I showed him a couple of stories I had just finished. He read them and phoned his publisher and his agent who both - having read the stories - took me on. So I was really hugely lucky. My advice to someone starting out now would be to find a sympathetic agent.
Thank you.
Name
Anon
-
Profession
Question
Do you think book publishers are getting increasingly interested in "non-native" Anglophone literature (Egyptians or Indians writing in English, for example), or is it just a case by case situation?
Answer
A bit of both. It still has to be case by case - but now it's not a strange thing; the literature exists and they know it can attract reviews and sell and win prizes. So I think they regard it favourably but if it's a new author then they still have to like the book they're being offered.
Thank you.
Name
Aziz
-
Profession
Editor
Question
It strikes me that the standard formula for success for any Arab or Muslim woman these days is to write an English-language novel about the repression of women and the patriarchy of Arab society, and to toss in a healthy dose of sex, more sex, and then some more sex. From what I've seen of your writing, you've adhered to that formula on at least a couple of occasions, and have won fame in the West and notoriety in the East as a result.
Regardless, my main concern is: What is it that you think you're doing? Do you think that by writing obscene accounts of sex, adultery, and lesbianism, you're in some sense contributing to the betterment of our societies? Or is it merely "art [sic] for art's sake?" Or do you feel obliged to graphically and voyeuristically chronicle the moral afflictions of our society in a way that probably serves nothing and no one, other than your pocket book and a Western society already inclined to distort and oversimplify the realities of the Middle East?
Answer
I would like to ask how much you have read of my work?
In Aisha there is one story with a lesbian interpretation.
And I will be completely honest with you - even though your tone is offensive you raise a valid point: I agree with what you describe as the 'shortest route to success'. And I have many times said (including in my Cairo talk at AUC) that when I wrote the stories of Aisha back in the late 70's I was politically naive I had no experience of writing in English and of the particular political position that puts you in.
My stories of the period really remind me of Yusuf Idris more than anything. They are good stories and honestly written, but because of the politics of reception - which is what you are talking about - there are bits of them I would not publish today.
In the novel 'In the Eye of the Sun', there are sexual passages, but they are not particularly to do with nationality. They are to do with a character (of any origin) growing up and they are very much part of the fabric of the novel. I have no problem at all with these.
Then, we take the other stories and we take 'The Map of Love'. I hope you would agree that there is nothing at all there that falls into the category you describe. The novel is, in fact, politically a challenge to the Western establishment and many readers. This was reflected in the hostile reviews it received. And it was only because readers loved it and went out and bought it and responded so positively to it that it became a success.
My latest book, the collection of Essays, Mezzaterra, spells out my position on all these matters and I think leaves no one in any doubt of my politics or my allegiances.
So, finally, you are making a valid point, but the work I have done over the last 21 years has stood in the face of the stance you describe. Please read it.
Thank you.
Name
Daud
- Nigeria
Profession
project engineer
Question
Asalam alaekum, I thank ALLAH for the good job that you people are doing. May He reward you abundantly.
I would like to ask you for help; I have the intention to write books i.e Islamic literature, but the research work is always the problem, thats why I would like to ask you for your e-mail address so that you can help to build my good intention.
Answer
Dear Brother,
I hope that God rewards you for your good intentions.
I'm afraid I have a terrible time finding the time to do my own research, as well as my writing and looking after my children etc. So I would not be able to help with your research.
May you have good fortune.
Thank you.
Name
Dalia
-
Profession
Question
Focusing on women in both Arab and Western cultures in most of your novels, do you consider your self a feminist or humanist novelist?
In your opinion, what are the main psychological differences between the Arab and the Western women?
Do you realise that the current Middle Eastern scene is very complex and requires more than an interpretation through the intimate relationships between men and women and stereotypical patriarchal societies?
Answer
I think being a feminist is part of being a humanist: believing in the equal value of every human being and in the (desirable) diversity of human beings at the same time.
I don't really know that one can talk about "main psychological differences". I tend to distrust essentialist categories. There are differences between how most Western women conduct thmselves and how most Arab women conduct themselves - but I would think these are the product of environment and history rather than psychology. I find that any characteristic that you care to come up with:generous, loving, modest, selfish, ambitious, smart, whatever - you will find examples of it among both groups of women.
Yes, I do realise that the current Middle Eastern scene is very complex. Any scene, looked at closely, is complex.
Thank you.
Name
Waldorf
-
Profession
Question
How do we compare Arab culture and its representation in the media when the diverity of Arab culture itself makes it difficult to quantify what Arab culture is?
Answer
I don't think you have to quantify or define Arab culture AS A WHOLE before you can discuss its representation in the media. It is always A BIT of the culture that is being represented (or misrepresented) in the media and that is what you discuss. In fact, one misrepresentation is the one that says that Arab culture is one monolithic unchanging thing. So even talking about Arab culture as diverse and contradictory and changing is in itself a salutary challenge to its representation.
Thank you.
Name
Yuki
- Japan
Profession
Question
Dear Mrs.Soueif:
As-Salamu `alaykum!
My questions are:What is literature regarded as in Islam? Have you ever read Japanese novels? If so, could you possibly state your impressions of them? Thank you in advance.
Answer
I'm not sure what you mean by your first question but 'Adab' in Arabic is Literature and is also the great virtue of being brought up well and being polite. So it has to be good.
I'm afraid I have sadly not read Japanese literature. I have seen Japanese films and liked them and I have a couple of Japanese novels sitting on my table waiting to be read.
Thank you.
Name
Joris
-
Profession
Question
Dear Ahdaf Soueif,
Thank you for taking the time for answering questions for the IslamOnline audience.
I am personally a great fan of your work.
In how far is your finctional work autobiographical?
Thank you.
Answer
Thank you for your kind words.
To some extent we all draw on what we know. But then we change it to fit it into the pattern that is fiction. So, for example, some of my friends detect my voice in Amal's voice in Map of Love. And that is valid. But I do not have a Palestinian mother or a musician brother and I am not living in Cairo wating for my son to visit me. So I guess I am saying that the affinities between author and character are probably ones of temperament and outlook rather than of events.
Thank you.
Name
Marwa
- Egypt
Profession
Question
Is it easier to plan your novel out to the last detail in an extended outline, or is it better to have a rough outline and then let the story take you where it goes? What way works for you, personally?
Answer
Personally, I start with the vaguest outline. I really start with a couple of characters and a setting. And I might know that a character is going to die or is going to get married ... big things. But the plot details get worked out as I go along. Imagine, for example, two particular people going to a particular country at a specific time. You turn them loose in the context and see what happens.
As the characters start to interact with the context the plot starts to take shape - partly determined by the interaction between characters and context, and partly by your (the novelist's) ideas.
Thank you.
Name
Muslim bound in written text
-
Profession
Question
A Pakistani poetess once wrote, "That is fragrance, it'll spread in the winds...
The dilemma is of the flower, where will the flower go?"
Although Parveen Shakir won much fame and attended even Harvard, she died a tragic death in a car accident. I am not sure about her personal life, but a lot of her poetry (she wrote ghazals) contained very personal declarations. From her poetry, I get the sense that there was either a problem with someone whom she loved or something like that.
My question to you is, in the part of the world you come from, what is the value of someone who speaks so openly in their work? Do you face opposition or welcome by your peers, elders, etc?
As someone who is interested in literature and written work, I am curious to hear another writer's perspective.
Answer
Arabic literature is full of very open discussions and declarations of love by women. And this is both in the classical and in the contemporary work that is being written now.
For myself, I am in an odd position because I write in English, not Arabic. However, a great deal of my work has been translated into Arabic and has - largely - been liked and celebrated. For example, my cllection of short stories, Zinat al-Hayah, was awarded the Cairo International Book Fair Award for best short story collection in 1996. The Arabic of The Map of Love has gone through 3 printings and the Arabic of the Essays, Mezzaterra, is being discussed at the Cairo Book Fair on saturday.
