Basma Abdel Aziz

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Basma Abdel Aziz ( Arabic بسمة عبد العزيز, DMG Basma ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz , b. 1976 in Cairo , Egypt ) is an Egyptian writer, journalist, artist, psychiatrist and human rights activist. Her criticism of the Egyptian government and her fight for human rights have earned her the nickname “the rebel”. She has already received several awards for her literary work and is best known internationally for her debut novel Das Tor (arab. 2013).

Life

Basma Abdel Aziz was born in Cairo. As a child she loved art, but her family did not allow her to become a sculptor or musician. Instead, she earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in medicine and surgery, a Master of Science (MSc) in neuropsychiatry and a diploma in sociology . At the university she was one of the few women who openly confronted the administration with human rights issues. As a result, she was denied various positions and promotions. Basma Abdel Aziz works as a psychiatrist at the El Nadeem Center, which provides support and psychological care for people who have been tortured in police stations and in prison camps. The subject of torture also runs through Basma Abdel Aziz's publications. In her sociological study The Temptation of Absolute Power , for which she received the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Prize in 2009, she documents and analyzes the violence of the police and security authorities against Egyptian citizens.

Her first collection of short stories May God make it easy (Arabic 2007) won the 2008 Sawiris Cultural Award . In 2016, Foreign Policy magazine declared her to be one of the most important representatives of global thought, as she told an "Orwellian story" in her debut novel al-Ṭābūr (2013, Eng .: The Gate ). In addition to George Orwell's 1984 and Franz Kafka's The Trial , Nagib Mahfuz 's famous Cairo trilogy was also cited as a reference text. The English translation The Queue (2016, translated from Arabic by Elisabeth Jaquette) was on the longlist for the Best Translated Book Award 2017 and on the shortlist for the TA First Translation Prize 2018. According to Marten Hahn, who wrote the German translation of the novel, Das Tor (2020, translated from Arabic by Larissa Bender), discussed for Deutschlandfunk Kultur , Basma Abdel Aziz paints “the image of a regime that wears down citizens with inhuman bureaucracy and surreal laws. Unmistakable real role model: the military regime of the autocrat Abdel Fattah al-Sisi . ”In 2018, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute declared her to be one of the most influential opinion leaders (31st place) in Arab countries.

In addition to her work as a psychiatrist and writer, Basma Abdel Aziz writes a column for the Egyptian weekly newspaper Al-Shorouk . In an interview, she stated that she was increasingly confronted with censorship in her journalistic writing: "When I wrote my column before the revolution , I had no problems, but now I sometimes stand in front of red lines that tell me: 'No, don't do this, don't mention it. ”She also exhibited works as a visual artist, including at the Mahmoud Mokhtar Museum in Cairo.

Works

Fiction

  • عشان ربنا يسهل ( ʿAšān rabbunā yusahhil , short stories, 2007) - dt. May God make it easy
  • الطابور ( aṭ-Ṭābūr , Roman, 2013) - German The Gate . Translated from the Arabic. by Larissa Bender. Heyne, Munich 2020. ISBN 978-3-453-32046-8 .
  • هنا بدن ( Hunā badan , Roman, 2018) - eng . Here is a body

Non-fiction

  • ما وراء التعذيب ( Mā warāʾa t-taʿḏīb , 2007) - German beyond torture
  • إغراء السلطة المطلقة: مسار العنف في علاقة الشرطة بالمواطن عبر التاريخ ( Iġrā' as-Sulţa al-muṭlaqa: Mazar al-'unf fī'alāqat aš-Surta bi-l-muwāṭin'abra t-Tarih , 2009) - dt. The temptation of absolute power
  • ذاكرة القهر: دراسة حول منظومة التعذيب ( Ḏākirat al-qahr: dirāsah ḥawla manẓūmat at-taʿḏīb , 2014) - dt. Remembrance of oppression: A study of the torture system
  • سطوة النص: خطاب الأزهر وأزمة الحكم ( Saṭwat an-naṣṣ: ḫiṭāb al-Azhar wa-azmat al-ḥukm , 2016) - dt. The power of the text: The speech of Al-Azhar and the crisis of governance

Essays and Short Papers (in translation)

  • Torture in Egypt . In: Torture: quarterly journal on rehabilitation of torture victims and prevention of torture 17/1. 2007, pp. 48-52. Readable online .
  • Bottled up (short story). Translated into English by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp. In: Index on Censorship 45/3. September 2016, pp. 90–95. DOI 10.1177 / 0306422016670356a.
  • Reflections on the President's Discourse . Translated into English by Elisabeth Jaquette. In: Words Without Borders . July 2017. Readable online .
  • Scenes from the Life of an Autocrat . Translated into English by Elisabeth Jaquette. In: World Literature Today 91/2. April 1, 2017, pp. 56–59. DOI 10.7588 / worllitetoda.91.2.0056.

Awards

  • 2008 Sawiris Cultural Award and General Organization for Cultural Palaces Prize for their collection of short stories May God make it easy
  • 2009 Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award for her sociological and historical study The Temptation of Absolute Power

literature

  • John C. Hawley: Coping with a Failed Revolution: Basma Abdel Aziz, Nael Eltoukhy, Mohammed Rabie & Yasmine El Rashidi . In: Ernest N. Emenyonu (Ed.): Focus on Egypt. Boydell & Brewer, Suffolk 2017, pp. 7-21. DOI: https://doi-org.uaccess.univie.ac.at/10.1017/9781787442351.003 .
  • Lindsey Moore: 'What happens after saying no?' Egyptian Uprisings and Afterwords in Basma Abdel Aziz's The Queue and Omar Robert Hamilton's The City Always Wins . In: CounterText 4/2. 2018, pp. 192–211.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Basma Abdel Aziz [Egypt]. In: International Literature Festival Berlin. 2018, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b c Charlotte Bailey: Bottled-up messages: A short story from Egypt about a woman feeling trapped. Interview with the author by Charlotte Bailey . In: Index on Censorship . tape 45 , no. 3 , September 20, 2016, p. 90-95 , doi : 10.1177 / 0306422016670356a .
  3. ^ A b The Chroniclers: Basma Abdel Aziz. In: FPglobalthinkers2016. 2016, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Basma Abdel Aziz on writing The Queue. In: For Books Sake. June 9, 2016, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Christian Endres: 1984 after the Arab Spring: The novel "The Gate" by Basma Abdel Aziz. In: The future. April 20, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Marcia Lynx Qualey: Novel "The Queue" by Basma Abdel Aziz: Dark Premonition. In: Qantara.de. June 8, 2016, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Marten Hahn: Basma Abdel Aziz: "The Gate". Egyptian dystopia. In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur. April 22, 2020, accessed April 30, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Basma Abdel Aziz "The Queue". In: Global Influence. 2018, accessed April 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Abdel Aziz, Basma
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian writer, journalist, artist, psychiatrist and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH 1976
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo , Egypt