Women Writing from the Arab World: Dubai panel

Novelist and blogger Liz Fenwick reports from Dubai on a panel discussion featuring Mansoura Ez Eldin, Haifa Bitar, Sahar el-Mougy and Rajaa al-Sanea with Hani Nakshabandi that discussed the questions: “What are the implications of being a writer for Arab women? Can one speak of women’s literature as opposed to men’s literature?” The report is preoccupied with Fenwick's own reactions, but there are some real zingers that made me wish I'd been there to hear these four very different writers talk about their process. Haifa Bitar described her struggles with the Greek Orthodox Church in Syria, especially after her divorce, as:

being in a small room like a cage and they only way to turn the fear (the cage) into endless space was to write. She also said that writing for her was like having a photocopier for what was in her mind.