Podcast conversation with Basma Abdelaziz
CCPT member, Maša Mrovlje talked to Basma Abdel Aziz, an Egyptian writer, psychiatrist, and visual artist. The conversation focused on one of Basma's most famous novels The Queue which is set against the backdrop of a failed political uprising in Egypt.
We addressed the challenges of telling a story about a failed revolution and explored how the absurd as a literary technique can help us narrate defeat in ways that are empowering and sustain a sense of revolutionary possibility. We examined the link between telling the truth about the past, counter-narrating the revolution, and the possibility of renewed resistance in the future, and discussed the motif of waiting in the queue as a metaphor of people's complicity with repressive regimes.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
Basma Abdel Aziz is an Egyptian writer, psychiatrist, and visual artist. Early on, she earned the nickname 'the rebel' for her indefatigable struggle against injustice, torture, and corruption. A weekly columnist for Egypt's al-Shorouk newspaper, she represents a fresh and necessary female voice in Arabic journalism and fiction. She is the winner of the Sawiris Cultural Award, the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces award, and the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award. She lives in Cairo.