Kutubna Cultural Center
Passage to the Plaza
Passage to the Plaza
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In Bab Al-Saha, a quarter of Nablus, Palestine, sits a house of ill repute. In it lives Nuzha, a young woman ostracized from and shamed by her community. When the Intifada breaks out, Nuzha’s abode unexpectedly becomes a sanctuary for those in the quarter: Hussam, an injured resistance fighter; Samar, a university researcher exploring the impact of the Intifada on women’s lives; and Sitt Zakia, the pious midwife.
In the furnace of conflict at the heart of the 1987 Intifada, notions of freedom, love, respectability, nationhood, the rights of women, and Palestinian identity—both among the reluctant residents of the house and the inhabitants of the quarter at large—will be melted and re-forged. Vividly recounted through the eyes of its female protagonists, Passage to the Plaza is a groundbreaking story that shatters the myth of a uniform gendered experience of conflict.
Sahar Khalifeh was born in Nablus, Palestine, in 1941 and is one of the best-known Palestinian women writers. Following an education in Palestine, she obtained a scholarship to study in the United States and whilst there obtained an MA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina, as well as a doctorate in Women's studies and American Literature from Iowa University. To date she has published nine novels, all of which deal with the situation of the Palestinians under occupation. Many of her works have been translated, including into English, French, German and Hebrew. She has won a number of Arab and international prizes, including the Alberto Moravia Prize in Italy, the Cervantes Award Prize in Spain, and the Naguib Mahfouz Prize in Egypt.
Location: Lower level B-2
