My Night in Abu Dhabi

by Phyllis Chesler

I just joined an amazing, landmark literary festival sponsored by Ananke, based in the United Arab Emirates. The distinguished Sabin Muzzafar organized feminist women writers whose work in Urdu, Hindi, Bangladeshi, and Arabic is rarely translated into other languages. The same is true for so many feminist works that are written in English and which do not make their way into Arabic, etc. A loss for us all and hopefully the publishers who were in attendance will be moved to start such translations. I hope that the approximately one hundred women who are participating in this three day conference can remain connected and that this festival “has legs.”

I did a reading from “An American Bride in Kabul” and grassroots activist and philanthropist, Mandy Sanghera, interviewed me so well about my latest book, “Requiem for a Female Serial Killer;” we discussed this work at length. I dedicated my reading to Nawal El-Sadawii who recently died and who also wrote a brilliant book about a prostitute who finally killed one of her many abusers and who was facing execution.

Here’s a link to some of today’s panels.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=1089873098200767&ref=watch_permalink