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Stories f rom Gaza

By Zainab Imam 2013-03-03
F there was one session that you should regret not having attended at the LLF, it was the one with British-Palestinian author Selma Dabbagh, who spoke about her novel, Out of It. The session, which was named after the novel, was well moderated by Aysha Raja.

It was structured such that Raja would ask Dabbagh a few questions and then ask her to read specific passages from the novel.

Out of It describes the life of a Palestinian family under siege while Gaza is being bombed. The novel follows the lives of three siblings: Rashid, who is looking for a way out of the conflict zone, Iman, who begins to get involved in the conflict before moving to London, and wheelchairbound Sabri, working on a history of Palestine.

Responding to a question on how she chose her characters, Dabbagh spoke about the Palestinian liberation movement. `It is a cause that attracts nutters as well as genuinely committed people. So in my novel, I was careful not to offend some activists who are doing good work by choosing a main character that is unsympathetic to the cause. When I first started writing, I knew I was really attracted to a certain aspect of the revolution people who have failed the revolution or those who feel that the revolution has failed them.

Elaborating on her understanding of the movement`s dynamics, Dabbagh said that when she was in Gaza last year, she realised that being in Palestine is a transformative experience. `In Palestine, your ideas matter. People are judging you on your views. The place has a specific draw for people who are thinking critically about morality.

Raja then asked Dabbagh to read a passage in which her protagonist Iman is in London and trying to grapple with a tragedy back home. Was it an angry passage, she asked.

`It was slightly angry. Sometimes, people find it strange that you`re affected by something happening somewhere else.

Dabbagh said that even though she had lived outside of Palestine, she had always been very connected to it and wanted to bring a fresh perspective from the place through her writing. `I would read a lot about it but couldn`t find anything very exciting, or at least as exciting as I wanted it to be. So I kept a global perspective on my characters,` she said. A young woman asked Dabbagh about the novel`s title. `It means three things,` Dabbagh said. `Firstly, it means out of Gaza, the place. Secondly, it means outside of politics and finally, it means being out of one`s mind.` E