Egyptian poet Mansoura Ezeldin hails from a region known for repressive regimes and rocked recently by people’s upheavals for change. In New Delhi as panellists at The Hindu Lit for Life conclave, she talks to SUBASH JEYAN on what it means to be a writer, to engage in her own different ways with the issues important to her…
(Published in The Hindu Sunday Magazine on September 24, 2011.)
Writing is a way to freedom and a weapon against the many injustices in society. Yet, she insists, a writer is not a mere spokesperson for his/her nation or people. Meet Mansoura Ezeldin.
Tell us about your work with Akhbar al-Adab… and the contemporary literary scene in Egypt today…
I was the book review editor at Akhbar al-Adab literary newspaper till last month. I have taken a year off to finish my new novel because I wanted to devote all my time to writing. The contemporary literary scene in Egypt is really rich. Since 2002, we’ve been having a flourishing period; many bookstores have opened and many independent publishers support daring experimental writing, and we have a good readership compared to the 1980s and 90s. Egyptian literature, especially that written by the new generation, is daring and breaches many taboos and also beautifully written at the same time.
How are contemporary women writers in Egypt contributing to social change? What are some of their predominant concerns?
Egyptian women in general were in the forefront of demonstrations during the revolution. And many Egyptian women writers were with them. Women writers also play an important role through their novels and essays and columns in newspapers. There are many female political and social activists who are fighting now for a secular, democratic country. Many of them, including myself, don’t want the Muslim Brotherhood or the Salafists to come to power. Because a possible victory of the Muslim Brotherhood will worsen Egyptian women’s position as they have a backward, negative image of women. But I’m not afraid of them. Fear gets you nowhere. We’re fighting a battle for building a new democratic country and in such a battle fear is the worst enemy.
How consciously are you working in your novels against stereotyped perceptions of women in Arab societies?
I believe that art and literature work inherently against stereotypes and generalisation. So, my writing is against all sorts of stereotypes, whether it’s stereotypes of women, men, or a specific culture or nation. Arab women have been subjected to many stereotypes, such as being oppressed, weak, not independent. These stereotypes are wrong in most cases. But I also believe that the novelist is not a PR official or a spokesperson for his/ her nation, people, or tribe. Literature is beyond all these things.
One has read and seen so much about the recent people’s uprising in Egypt. What impact, if any, has it had on writers, especially women writers? Are you really able to talk about social, political and sexual issues in a more open way than before? Or have writers always enjoyed that liberty?
As a novelist I have always written what I wanted to write. These days in Egypt everyone can talk/ write openly about what he wants in social and political terms, but the SCAF (The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) is trying to reproduce Mubarak’s regime again. We, now, write against this. I write a weekly article in Almustaqbal newspaper.
The problem also is that society doesn’t approve daring writing concerning sex or religion. I guess we need more than one revolution. Believe it or not, most readers who got mad over the sex scenes in my novel were female! I see this as a part of the symbolic violence where the “victim” begins to see herself through the eyes of her oppressor, and in my opinion this is a more difficult kind of violence because one can’t recognise it easily.
What was/is it like being a writer under military and other dictatorships? How does having to find indirect ways of saying things affect the texture of one’s work? Or is that not a problem at all?
Like I said, I’ve always written what I wanted to write. In Egypt, under Mubarak’s ugly regime, many writers were able to write what they wanted, but they paid a heavy price to gain this right. By heavy price I mean having your books banned or being neglected by the authorities. The regime used official literary prizes as rewards for the writers who supported it, or at least didn’t oppose it.
As for journalism, the situation is more difficult, especially when it comes to State-owned newspapers, because many editors-in-chief work as gate keepers or even censors. The situation is better now, but new taboos have appeared because many editors are scared of the SCAF. But, fortunately, we, the writers and journalists, are still fighting to gain more freedom of speech. In the newspaper where I used to work we brought down a pro-Mubarak editor-in-chief and elected a new one, which was an amazing experience.
You’ve called your writing as the ‘weapon of your choice’. What exactly is it that you see yourself fighting?
I’ve always had to fight for everything I have now. Fought to leave my remote village and live on my own in Cairo, to live the way I liked, to choose writing as a career because all the family wanted me to be a doctor, fought to write what I wanted without thinking of anything else outside the writing process. I owe writing almost everything. For me, it was a way to freedom, a way to get rid of many obstacles. This is one side of it. On the other, in my writing I’m trying to capture the neglected, forgotten, obscure people, feelings and worlds. Writing for me is a weapon to stand against the injustice, to support the weak, but this doesn’t mean that I’m writing propaganda literature. On the contrary, I opt for experimental, avant garde writing.
What’s Maryam’s Maze all about? You’ve said that you’ve really let go and unleashed yourself in that novel. Can you elaborate on that please?
I meant that I was totally free while writing it. Didn’t think about the potential readers, critics, anyone, or anything apart from the novel and the characters. It’s an experimental, avant garde novel that might come across as difficult or even enigmatic, so I didn’t expect it to succeed but to my surprise it was a huge success. It sold many editions including a popular edition and gained praise from the most important Arab and Egyptian critics.
The novel is about a central protagonist, Maryam, who wakes up in a flat that she has never seen before and finds that her family members, friends, and the world as she knew it had disappeared. The novel follows her attempts to regain and build her life through memories.
In Maryam’s Maze, there is a strong tie with the techniques and the world of The Arabian Nights, but the protagonist is a young woman moving through Cairo in the beginning of the third millennium.
Your second novel, Beyond Paradise, was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2010. What do you feel about what has been called the Arabic Booker, do you think it is bringing to light new voices and writers?
Yes, the prize is successful and is bringing new voices to light, but let’s not forget that no prize can be of any help if the work itself is not good. Many novels which won or were shortlisted for prestigious prizes have been forgotten later.
You have said that each new book/novel is an attempt to set right a perceived lack in the previous book and that you have an idea what must be written when you begin a novel. Does writing always follow this trajectory, or is there room for surprising yourself even as you write?
I just meant that I’d like to be a learner and not to be deceived by the success of my books. I don’t prefer to look at myself as a professional. Writing for me is a mix of pleasure, adventure, and profession. When I begin writing a novel, I only have a vague picture of what I want to write, I have some questions and the writing process is a constant trial to find answers to those questions. If I don’t feel that I’m in an adventure within the unknown, I can’t complete writing a work. I love when the characters surprise me and lead me down their own routes. I totally believe that “a good novel writes itself”.
Quick facts
Mansoura Ezeldin was born in Delta Egypt in 1976 and studied journalism at the Cairo University. She works as the book review editor with Akhbar al-Adab. Her first collection of short stories, Shaken Light, was published in 2001, followed by the novels, Maryam’s Mazein 2004 and Beyond Paradisein 2009. Beyond Paradisewas shortlisted for the prestigious Arabic Booker in 2010. She lives in Cairo.
Tales I tell myself 