Liana Badr, a Palestinian storyteller, poet and film director, has experienced what exile, the diaspora, returning to her country and life under occupation have meant throughout her own life. Born in Jerusalem in 1950 but raised in Jericho, she studied in Jordan, where her family found refuge after the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, and then in Lebanon, where they left after 1970’s “Black September.” From there they were forced to find a new home once again because of the Lebanese civil war, so they then lived in Syria, Tunisia and Jordan, before finally returning to Ramallah in 1994. Her career bears living witness to the last 70 years of history in Palestine and the Middle East. 

Considered one of the most prominent Arab writers, Liana Badr often portrays disparate female characters in her works, from activists to poets and peasant women, in order to narrate their hopes and dreams, as well as their relationship with the land and community, and their daily struggle to show resistance, forge a future and define themselves amid the tragedies which have been caused by occupation, uprooting and patriarchy in the different places where she herself has lived. Her short stories, novels and documentaries, which use an approach resembling social realism, have been described as “defying the laws of gravity in fiction,” employing a prose of great lyrical density (Times Literary Supplement). 

We will engage in a conversation with her with the help of Lola Bañón, a journalist and professor at the University of Valencia, to learn more about her experience and work as an Arab woman creator within contexts of conflict, as a way to reflect upon the relationship between life experience, testimonials, fiction and autofiction. 

The meeting forms part of Casa Árabe’s contribution to the Festival of Ideas, at which it is also organizing the concert “Tawassol,” featuring Driss El Maloumi and Andreas Prittwitz, also to be held at the Círculo de Bellas Artes on September 21 at 8:00 p.m. 

Liana Badr 

Liana Badr was born in Jerusalem. She was exiled from Jericho in 1967 and since then has lived in many different countries, including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Tunisia. With degrees in Philosophy and Psychology awarded by the Arab University of Beirut, she worked for several Palestinian women’s organizations as a volunteer, as a reporter in the field and editor for the cultural section of Al Hurriyya magazine and as Director General of Arts at the Palestinian Ministry of Culture. She is one of the most celebrated and translated Palestinian women writers. Founding editor of the cultural magazine Dafater Thaqafiyya, she has authored novels, short stories and children’s stories, as well as being a film director. She has written and directed seven documentary films, which have received numerous international awards. She has lived in Ramallah since 1994. 

Lola Bañón 

A professor of journalism at the University of Valencia and assistant director of the Summer University of Guardamar del Segura (Alicante), Lola Bañón holds a PhD in Journalism from the University of Valencia and has a bachelor’s degree in Information Sciences from the Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona. She has been a practicing journalist for 25 years at Valencia’s regional television network, where she has been devoted mainly to covering international news. She has been a special envoy for the coverage of conflicts in the Middle East and the Maghreb region and at diplomatic summits held by the European Union. She authored the book Palestinos (Palestinians, published Planeta in 2002) and several publications in the field of research and public information.