Basma Abdel Aziz
Basma Abdel Aziz | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1976 Cairo, Egypt |
| Occupation(s) | Novelist, psychiatrist, visual artist, human rights advocate |
| Known for | Novels "The Queue" and "Here Is A Body"; weekly columns in al-Shorouk newspaper; advocacy for human rights |
Basma Abdel Aziz (Arabic: بسمة عبد العزيز), born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1976, is an Egyptian novelist, psychiatrist, visual artist, and advocate for human rights, often referred to as 'the rebel'. Residing in Cairo, she contributes weekly columns to Egypt's al-Shorouk newspaper. Writing primarily in Arabic, her novels The Queue and Here Is A Body have been translated into English. Among her accolades are the Sawiris Cultural Award and various other honors recognizing her literary and nonfiction contributions.
Life and career
A native of Cairo, Abdel Aziz earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in medicine and surgery, a Master of Science in neuropsychiatry, as well as a diploma in sociology. She is employed by the General Secretariat of Mental Health within Egypt's Ministry of Health and also works at the Nadeem Center for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture.
In 2008, Abdel Aziz secured second place for short stories in the Sawiris Cultural Award and received an award from the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces that same year. Her sociological research on police brutality in Egypt, titled Temptation of Absolute Power, was honored with the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award in 2009.
Her first novel, Al-Tabuur (translated as The Queue), was published by Dar al-Tanweer in 2013; its English version, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette, was issued by Melville House in 2016. This satirical work earned the English PEN Translation Award in 2017. Lauded for its dystopian critique of injustice, torture, and corruption, it has drawn comparisons from the New York Times to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Franz Kafka's The Trial. The novel is also accessible in Turkish, Portuguese, Italian, and German editions.
In 2016, she was recognized among Foreign Policy's Leading Global Thinkers. Two years later, the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute identified her as a significant influencer shaping Arabic public discourse. Her 2018 novel Here Is A Body, translated into English by Jonathan Wright, was published by Hoopoe, an imprint affiliated with the American University in Cairo Press.
Works
Fiction
- May God Make it Easy, 2008
- The Boy Who Disappeared, 2008
- Al-Tabuur (The Queue), 2013
- Hona Badan (Here Is A Body), 2018
- The blueberry Years (Aawam Al touts), 2022
Non-fiction
- Temptation of Absolute Power, 2009
- Beyond Torture, 2011
- Memory of Repression, 2014
- The Power of the Text, 2016
See also
Further reading
- 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.
- 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.
External links
- Abdel Aziz’s essay on crafting ‘The Queue’ available at arablit.org
- Selected passage from Abdel Aziz’s novel The Queue, translated by Elisabeth Jaquette
- Sample excerpt from Abdel Aziz’s novel Here is a body, translated by Jonathan Wright
- Essay by Abdel Aziz titled Reflections on the President’s Discourse