Human and social sciences
Haifa Zangana ,
Hala Faik ill.
Translated from Arabic by Salam Darwazah Mir
A Party for Thaera: Palestinian Women Write Life in Prison
In a first, nine politically-diverse women, former Palestinian political prisoners, sat around a table in a room in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to share their stories of incarceration. These non-writers learnt to express the reality of their time in prison, of the separation from their children, of the endless struggles against Israeli occupation, to produce heartfelt narratives that go beyond simply recalling the details of their sentence or revisiting their trauma. Instead, this unique volume transforms their experiences into an expression of the self, giving readers an “exceptional” insight into an almost unknown women’s world, of life and love behind bars and beyond.
Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi author and activist. She has written several books, including Women on a Journey: Between Baghdad and London and Dreaming of Baghdad. She writes for the Arab and western media.
Salam Darwazah Mir is a specialist in post-colonial studies, an independent scholar, and the book review editor for Arab Studies Quarterly. She has published several articles on Palestinian literature.