TRAPPED and suppressed by social norms, Egyptian author Sahar El Mougy stumbled upon what has now become her highly acclaimed writing career.
“I was 30 years old when I began to write and it happened that when I started writing, I didn’t plan to become a writer. I started writing to find out what was going on inside me,” she explained.
At that time El Mougy was processing the fact that she was depressed through her 20s.
“This was because the child within me was suppressed by social norms. The act of writing was the beginning of liberation within myself.”
In her books, El Mougy deals with issues around the conflict between Western values and traditional gender roles in the Middle East, from a feminist perspective. She has four books to her name, for which she has won numerous awards and gained a reputation as a significant voice in the Arab world.
El Mougy is one of several writers who feature at 14th Time of the Writer Festival which opens in Durban today
“I encourage everyone to write, even those who are not writers. To express yourself in writing is to know yourself,” she said insightfully.
Given that El Mougy was in the midst of the recent revolution in Egypt, and with the wave of uprising across the Middle East and North Africa, I asked what her thoughts were on the role of writers in these historical events.
“Writers have always been telling the truth and opposing dictatorships in varying degrees. But at the time of revolution it is more important as writers to be on the streets and among demonstrators.
“In the 18 days of revolution here in Egypt and after I’ve been on the streets… it may not have been a beautiful sight, but it is wonderful witnessing history being made,” she said.
El Mougy said that because of the overwhelming emotion of witnessing what was happening around her, she was unable to write.
“But it was important being there and knowing, for example, that at any moment one of the rubber bullets could have hit me. The writer takes from the people and then gives back to them. He takes that courage and that beauty and when this is documented, it gives back to the owners so they can see it and know what they have done,” she explained.
El Mougy will be participating in a discussion session, along with Azad Essa, entitled Writing Revolution, to unpack the role of writers in the scenarios unfolding across Africa. This will take place on Thursday evening at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre.
Touching on how social media ties in with these issues, El Mougy offered an example of how she used Facebook as an activism tool.
“During the revolution I was incapable of writing in Arabic, but I forced myself to sit down and write something in English to my friends, asking them to circulate it as a form of activism. Social media is essential to what is happening.”
Such is the strength of social media that in April a book entitled Tweets from Tahir will be launched and is said to “capture Egypt’s social media-led revolution” by documenting a series of tweets from the day it started.
Asked about such products and if she thought social media/new media would be the death of print media, El Mougy said: “Yes, as documentary materials these kinds of books have merit. But I also have questions about the literary quality of such books. As a writer I don’t think I can write something good now. I have to wait and process what has happened.”
l Time of the Writer Festival kicks off tonight at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre. R25, R10, students at Computicket. Get the full programme at www.cca.ukzn.ac.za