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Bushra al-Maqtari

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Bushra al-Maqtari (Arabic: بشرى المقطري; born 1979) is a Yemeni writer and activist. She came to prominence as an anti-government protest leader in her hometown of Taiz during the 2011 Yemeni Revolution. As a writer, she is best known for her 2012 novel Behind the Sun and her 2018 nonfiction work What You Have Left Behind: Voices from the Land of the Forgotten War.

Early life and education

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Bushra al-Maqtari was born in 1979 in Taiz, Yemen.[1][2] She spent some of her childhood in Saudi Arabia, where her father worked in construction.[3][4][5] They were forced to leave in 1990, when a million Yemenis were expelled amid tensions between the two countries.[3]

Maqtari studied history at Taiz University, graduating with a bachelor's degree.[2][6]

Career and activism

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Maqtari is known for her work as a writer and activist. Her writing often focuses on the Yemeni Revolution and leftist politics in Yemen.[6] She is considered a rare progressive, female voice in Yemen's conservative society.[3] In response to her work, Yemeni clerics issued a fatwa against her and called for her to be excommunicated in January 2012.[3][7][8] Protesters issued online threats against her and marched on her home.[7]

Maqtari published her first book, the prose collection The Furthest Reaches of Pain, in 2003.[1] She has written for both Arabic and English-language publications including The New Arab and the New York Times.[1][3][6] In 2011, while covering a protest as a freelance reporter for the Mareb Press, she was injured by a grenade.[9]

In 2011, she became a leader in anti-government protests during the Yemeni Revolution.[3][10] The New York Times described her as "one of the first and most fearless leaders of the movement."[11] Notably, she helped lead a protest march known as the "March for Life" from Taiz to Sanaa.[2][3]

She published her first novel, Behind the Sun, in 2012.[1][6] The book focuses on forced disappearances in Yemen.[3][4] The following year, she was chosen as a participant in the International Prize for Arabic Fiction Nadwa,[1][5][12] and was given the Françoise Giroud Award for Defense of Freedom and Liberties.[6][13]

Her next book was 2015's South Yemen Under the Left, co-written with Fawwaz Traboulsi, which details the history of the Yemeni Socialist Party.[3][6][13][14] This was followed in 2018 by her book What You Have Left Behind: Voices from the Land of the Forgotten War, described as an "impassioned raw account of the displaced, widowed and orphaned survivors of Yemen's war."[3][6] The nonfiction work, which tells the stories of 43 different families, is based on her reporting across the country during the Yemeni Civil War.[4][13] It was published in English by Fitzcarraldo Editions,[15] with a translation by Sawad Hussain that won a PEN Translates award and was shortlisted for the 2023 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation.[16][17][18]

In 2020, she was awarded the Johann Philipp Palm Award for Freedom of Speech and the Press, in honor of her work as an activist in Yemen.[6][13][19]

As an academic, Maqtari worked at Taiz University[11] and founded a historical research center in the city.[2] She later became a researcher at the Sana'a Center for Strategic Studies.[6] She has served on the executive board of the Yemeni Writers Union [ar][1][5] and as a member of the Central Committee of the Yemeni Socialist Party.[2]

She continues to live and work in Yemen, despite offers for her to emigrate to France and Sweden.[3]

Personal life

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Maqtari's first marriage ended in divorce.[11] She later married Sadeq Ali Ghanem.[13]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Bushra al-Maqtari". International Prize for Arabic Fiction. 2013. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  2. ^ a b c d e Schmitz, Charles; Burrowes, Robert D. (2017). Historical Dictionary of Yemen. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-5381-0233-6.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rodrigues, Charlene (2020-06-21). "Award-winning Yemeni author has one hope: an end to the war". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2020-06-22. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  4. ^ a b c Wafy, Muhammed Nafih (2018-09-03). "Bushra al-Maqtariʹs "Voices from a forgotten war-torn country": Yemenʹs chronicles of death and destruction untold". Qantara. Archived from the original on 2018-09-09. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  5. ^ a b c "Eight Young Authors at 2013 International Prize for Arabic Fiction Nadwa". ArabLit. 2013-11-02. Archived from the original on 2015-03-24. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Bushra Al-Maqtari". Sana'a Center For Strategic Studies. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  7. ^ a b "Yemen: Continued Attacks on Freedom of Expression in Yemen". Gulf Centre for Human Rights. 2012-02-24. Archived from the original on 2012-03-02. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  8. ^ Heinze, Marie-Christine (2018-06-14). Yemen and the Search for Stability: Power, Politics and Society After the Arab Spring. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-83860-995-5.
  9. ^ "Bushra Al-Maqtari injured". Reporters Without Borders. 2011-02-18. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  10. ^ "Yemen's embattled leader takes emergency powers". ABC7 San Francisco. 2011-03-23. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  11. ^ a b c Worth, Robert F. (2011-07-20). "Yemen on the Brink of Hell". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  12. ^ Dight, Clare (2013-11-07). "Seeking literary recognition". The National. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  13. ^ a b c d e "Voices from the Forgotten War: an interview with Yemeni author Bushra Al Maqtari". Al-Madaniya Magazine. 2020-06-11. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  14. ^ "Left-Wing Trends in the Arab World (1948-1979): Bringing the Transnational Back In" (PDF). Orient-Institut Beirut. December 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
  15. ^ "Fitzcarraldo Editions". fitzcarraldoeditions.com. Retrieved 2022-10-13.
  16. ^ Comerford, Ruth (2021-12-02). "Fitzcarraldo signs 'unvarnished chronicle' of Yemeni civil war". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  17. ^ Bayley, Sian (2021-12-21). "PEN Translates award winners from 15 countries revealed". The Bookseller. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  18. ^ "The 2023 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation". Banipal Trust for Arab Literature. 2023. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
  19. ^ "Bushra Almaqtari Wins Palm Award for Freedom of Speech and Press". Republican Yemen. 2020-05-17. Archived from the original on 2020-05-28. Retrieved 2021-06-16.
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