Meet Oman's Jokha Alharthi, the first Arabic author to win Man Booker

Agencies
May 25, 2019

London, May 25: Jokha Alharthi on Tuesday became the first Arabic author to win the Man Booker International prize for her novel "Celestial Bodies" which reveals her Omani homeland's post-colonial transformation.

"I am thrilled that a window has been opened to the rich Arabic culture," Alharthi, 40, told reporters after the ceremony at the Roundhouse in London.

Alharthi is the author of two previous collections of short fiction, a children's book and three novels in Arabic.

An award-winning author, she has been shortlisted for the Sheikh Zayed Award for Young Writers and won the 2010 Best Omani Novel Award for 'Celestial Bodies'.

She studied classical Arabic poetry at Edinburgh University and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

"Oman inspired me but I think international readers can relate to the human values in the book - freedom and love," she said.

The prestigious 50,000-pound (57,000 euro, $64,000) prize, which celebrates translated fiction from around the world, is divided equally between the author and the translator.

Alharthi's translator was US academic Marilyn Booth, who teaches Arabic literature at Oxford University.

The judges said Celestial Bodies was "a richly imagined, engaging and poetic insight into a society in transition and into lives previously obscured".

It is set in the village of Al Awafi in Oman where we encounter three sisters: Mayya, who marries Abdallah after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from a sense of duty; and Khawla, who is waiting for her beloved who has emigrated to Canada.

The three sisters witness Oman's evolution from a traditional, slave-owning society.

"It touches the subject of slavery. I think literature is the best platform to have this dialogue," Alharthi said.

The jury said: "Elegantly structured and taut, it tells of Oman's coming-of-age through the prism of one family's losses and loves".

The Guardian said it offers "glimpses into a culture relatively little known in the west" and The National said it signalled "the arrival of a major literary talent", calling the book "a densely woven, deeply imagined tour de force".

Jury chair Bettany Hughes said the novel showed "delicate artistry and disturbing aspects of our shared history".

"The style is a metaphor for the subject, subtly resisting cliches of race, slavery and gender," she said.

Alharthi was up against five other shortlisted authors: France's Annie Ernaux, Germany's Marion Poschmann, Poland's Olga Tokarczuk, Colombia's Juan Gabriel Vasquez and Chile's Alia Trabucco Zeran.

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News Network
April 30,2024

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Itamar Ben Gvir, a notorious far-right Israeli minister, has suggested that some Palestinians could be “killed” instead of being kidnapped during the savage war in Gaza.
 
The minister made remarks during an Israeli war cabinet meeting where he questioned the necessity of the detention of a large number of Palestinians.

“Why are there so many arrests? “Can’t you kill some? Do you want to tell me they all surrender? What are we to do with so many arrested? It’s dangerous for the soldiers.” Ben-Gvir was quoted as asking the Israeli military's chief of staff Herzi Halevi.

The minister also reportedly demanded that the army shoot Palestinian women and children in the besieged Palestinian territory to “protect” the Israeli forces.

Halevi briefed ministers who attended the cabinet meeting on the military campaign in Gaza and highlighted that hundreds of Palestinians had surrendered to the occupying forces.

Ben Gvir recently also called for the execution of Palestinian prisoners to ease overcrowding in the jails. The minister said that applying the death penalty to Palestinian detainees was the “right” solution to tackle the problem of prison overcrowding.

Israel soldiers have abducted more than 5,000 of Palestinians during their ongoing military campaign in Gaza.

The Gaza media office has said that Palestinian prisoners were undergoing "the worst kinds of torture" in Israeli jails.

Palestinian rights group Addameer earlier this month said Israel was holding 9,500 Palestinian political prisoners, not including those taken from the Gaza Strip.

Israel has arrested thousands of Palestinians since 7 October. Those detained, often without charge, describe regular beatings and a solitary daily meal designed simply to keep them alive.

Palestinians taken prisoner or hostage from both the West Bank and Gaza have given testimonies detailing horrific and sadistic abuse and torture by their Israeli jailers including beatings, verbal abuse, sexual abuse and rape, breaking of limbs, burns, being stripped naked, and forced drug taking.

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News Network
April 23,2024

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The genocidal Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has entered its 200th day, with occupation forces killing more Palestinians in defiance of widespread international outcry to end the carnage.

The aggression marked its 200th day on Tuesday with no end in sight to the Israeli war that has so far killed a shocking number of Palestinians and led to a humanitarian crisis in the besieged territory.

The Gaza Health Ministry said Israeli forces have committed three "massacres" over the past 24 hours, killing at least 32 Palestinians and wounding 59 others.

The numbers, it added, bring the Palestinian death toll to more than 34,183, with at least 77,143 injured and an estimated 7,000 missing and presumed dead since early October.

More than 14,500 children and 9,500 women are among those killed, making up over 70 percent of the victims, according to health officials.

Israel waged its brutal US-backed war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Israel has been carrying out war crimes in Gaza by deliberately starving people and forcing their evacuation, as well as targeting hospitals and schools sheltering displaced Palestinians.

Despite all these atrocities, the regime has failed to achieve its declared objectives of “destroying Hamas” and finding Israeli captives held in Gaza.

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News Network
April 27,2024

The spokesman for the Yemeni Armed Forces has said it has carried out new operations against American and British targets in retaliation for their aggression on the country.

Brigadier General Yahya Saree said on Friday that Yemen’s naval forces struck a British oil tanker in the Red Sea with missiles.

Saree also said the military also shot down an American MQ-9 drone in Sa’ada province.

He added that the new operations were also a show of solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, amid the Israeli genocide there. 

“The Yemeni Armed Forces salute all the people of Yemen for their faithful response to the call of the fighter leader Sayyed Abdulmalik Badr El-Din Al-Houthi, may Allah protect him, in their unprecedented large-scale interaction in support of our oppressed brothers in the Gaza Strip, affirming support for the Armed Forces in their military operations against the ‘Israeli’ enemy and against the American-British aggression supporting it in the Red and Arabian Seas and the Indian Ocean,” Saree said.

He stressed that the Yemeni armed forces will continue operations in the Red and Arabian Seas as well as the Indian Ocean until the Western-backed Israeli genocide comes to a halt.

Since the start of the brutal campaign in Gaza, the regime has killed more than 34,300 Palestinians and injured over 77,000 others. It has cut off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have been targeting Israeli vessels or those “associated” with the occupying regime in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea since October 7, 2023.

The regime ignited its bloody war machine in the besieged Palestinian territory on that October day in response to Operation Al-Aqsa Storm conducted by the resistance movement Hamas.

The maritime attacks have forced some of the world’s biggest shipping and oil companies to suspend transit through one of the world’s most important maritime trade routes.

Tankers are instead adding thousands of miles to international shipping routes by sailing around the continent of Africa rather than going through the Suez Canal.

The pro-Palestine maritime campaign has also prompted airstrikes by the US and its allies on Yemen – in violation of the Yemeni sovereignty and international law.

In consequence, Yemen’s armed forces have declared US and British vessels as legitimate targets.

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