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Zangana, Haifa (ed.). Party for Thaera: Palestinian Women Writing Life (Arabic Edition). London: E-Kutub, 2017. 102 pages. Paperback $11.00
This book in Arabic is a collection of non-fiction creative writing by nine Palestinian women, eight of whom had been imprisoned and released by the Israeli authorities for resisting the Occupation. Whereas eight women had had no former experience with writing, the ninth, Rose Shomali Muslih, is a writer-political activist who had not been incarcerated but knows well enough the feeling of being an exile in her own country. All the women hold diverse political views. Iraqi writer and political activist Haifa Zangana conducted two creative writing workshops for the participants in Ramallah, Palestine, during May 2015 and 2016. The workshops were part of the celebration of literature in Palestine. They were held under the auspices of the "Tamer Institute for Community Education" and the "Society of Women Imprisoned for Seeking Freedom," (Maseera), with Zangana as coach.
The slim volume of stories, impressions, and vignettes is intended to fill in the gap in literature by Arab women, for it gives a powerful platform to Palestinian women whose voices have been absent, like that of other Arab women who share the same experience. The book also introduces the genre of non-fiction creative writing to Arabic literature. As Ferial Ghazoul suggests in the Introduction, Zangana's endeavors resonate with those of Dr. Rita Charon, the founder of the Program of Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, USA. Both Zangana and Charon believe in the power of stories to heal and sustain (13-14).
What is interesting about Party for Thaera is the stories' unique quality, diversity, inventiveness, and originality. Participants were encouraged to record the details of their incarceration, and the reader gets good knowledge of those...