In Search of Fatima: A Virtual Reading Group

Dates: March 30, 2024

Time: 5 pm (Dubai)

Registration Fee: 25 AED 

Language: English

Location: Online via Zoom

In this online reading group that meets over Zoom, participants will discuss In Search of Fatima by Ghada Karmi (March). The session will start with a brief overview of the author and the story, providing context for the literature. We will delve into close readings of specific texts during the session. The floor will be open for reflection and discussion and participants are encouraged to share passages they enjoyed. Participants are encouraged to read the book before the session. The meeting will last approximately 90 minutes.

An intimate memoir of the 1948 Nakba, exile and the dispossession of Palestinian lands, In Search of Fatima reflects the author’s personal experiences of displacement and loss against a backdrop of the major political events which have shaped conflict in the Middle East. Kharmi was born in Jerusalem but her family were forced out in 1948, following the Nakba, when Palestinians were dispossessed of their lands at the hands of the Israeli state. In this moving account of exile, she charts her family's displacement to Jordan, and finally to Golders Green, London, where she initially refused to lay down roots in alien soil. Through this journey, Kharmi charts the personal account of a young woman's search for identity: as a Palestinian far away from home. Speaking for the millions of displaced people worldwide who have lived suspended between their old and new countries, fitting into neither, this is a nuanced exploration of psychological displacement and loss of identity. 

Doaa M. Baumi holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham, complemented by an MA from the University of Chicago and a BA from al-Azhar University in Cairo. She has enriched the academic landscape by teaching diverse courses to undergraduates both in the US and the UK. Baumi's groundbreaking doctoral thesis is set to be published as a book by De Gruyter. Her prolific scholarly contributions demonstrate her dedication to bridging cultural divides through education.