Desert Storms
In 2010 the Saladin days presented the world premiere of the stage play Desert Storms, written by Tariq Ali and Thorvald Steen. The program also featured the writers Hanan al-Skaykh and Mustafa Can.
Participants:
Mustafa Can is a Swedish journalist and writer, who immigrated to Sweden from Turkish Kurdistan at the age of six. His first novel, Tätt intill dagarna: berättelsen om min mor (t: Close to the days: the story of my mother), was published in 2006. Hanan al-Shaykh is a Lebanese writer of contemporary literature. Many of her books focus on the situation of Arab women i patriarchal societies, such as The Story of Zahra (1980) and Women of Sand and Myrrh (1989). Her book The Locust and the Bird: My Mother’s Story (translated into English in 2009), tells the story of how her mother ran away from husband and children to choose love.
Thorvald Steen is among Norway’s most internationally oriented writers, having written about historical figures such as Saladin and Snorre, as well as contemporary literature, children’s books, essays and plays. A former head of the Norwegian Writer’s Union and Norwegian PEN board member, Steen has been translated into 20 languages.
Tariq Ali is an international author, historian and political activist. He has written more than 30 books of non-fiction, fiction and history, and is a popular lecturer. He was one of the organisers of the big demonstrations against the war in Vietnam, and has been celebrated in song by the Rolling Stones.