[inaudible conversations] good evening everyone. Imap politics and prose that union market and behalf of the owners and staff i would like to welcome you to tonights event. And that shows the Event Schedule for the rest of august. And those other two locations in town and before we begin we ask that everyone silence a cell phone and during the q a icrtion we have a handheld microphone to pass around. Plus we are recording tonights event and it is important we hear your questions on audio. If you have not already purchased a book we have many copies for sale behind the register. A lebanese journalist and was here to present tonight essays by arab women reporting from the arab world. And to provide a far too rare platform for the journalist to share in their own words and their experiences recording in the middle east. The 19 essays in this collection are darkly humorous. To provide insight into the unique challenges these women face as well as unique advantages. Written in the forward womens voices are crucial to getting a full understanding of the story without the female perspective it cannot be painted and particularly in the middle east and the arab pworld the female protagonist is given a voice only by other women with all women on the ground we are given the opportunity to hear what these women have experienced and we all benefit from a fuller picture. Joined in conversation with a National Security reporter covering extremism for npr please welcome them to politics and prose. [applause] thank you so much for that introduction and everyone for coming out tonight its such a great turnout to see friends and faces. Im so glad to be in conversation with hannah today its the first of ever met her even though we been working closely together for monthsvke her essay is the opening essay in this collection and for a specific reason it was really quite beautiful because essentially what she does is analyzes your work right in front of your eyes and she shares her own experiences to remember her time in iraq by x speaking about the friendships that she formed an important to have theer closeness and to contribute to this collection why he decided to go the single and with those bookstores and with a huge influence on the worldview and the possibilities of language. Between reading her work it was first approached it was like oh my god irony have three stories im working on what will i do . But really it is a project i believe in wholeheartedly o. I would see my colleagues in the middle east and there is that sisterhood that forms when you do this kind of work. And i would share their stories and even the fractionally makes into print or into air this was hugely valuable. You opened by say you are often asked what it is like. And the incredible way someone like that some friends reply toee that. And the premise of the entire book and so i want to take the conversation a bit further. Do you feel that you had advantages as a woman and also disadvantages. En and so then that is it were job. It is oppression but it was true. And so i thought it is nothing but a benefit even then there was the encounter i could tell someone was taking me seriously at the time i was in iraq as debbie rowe chief i came back and said fisherprice my first hero. Even when i did find it being hostile it was generally to my advantage because i came from underestimating what we could do. But she wasei eight months pregnant. People would say look at these two little babies. As abo result we and my nine moh pregnant iraqi woman both one of the first interviews. In terms of disadvantages, i was wonderingva if you feel youe experienced a similar disadvantages because i would like to get into that and im. And i also have a foot in the world and i was wondering if you think maybe that protected you from some disadvantages other women experienced. I could choose how and yes i knew no matter how bad things got in iraq, i had a passport and detained 26 or 27 million but very cognizant. Six weeks on, three weeks off. It is cognizant f of that they expect us to be a certain standard of behavior that they did not expect from other americans who were not in the. Ackground just a little bit more on that identity is she a day in this collection included when men likean this because i feel very strongly that as par this part e story of the arab world where you have the huge diaspora and many of them were forced out of the air of world or lived in exile and have families that fled conflic conflicts when thee younger and so on. I wonder to what extent you feel it has informed your career in any way. Obviously you chose to work in the middle east at various points but also did it affect your approach in different stories and do you feel it effectaffects your career todayr those who dont know. Just wondering if you feel its still influenced your approach in any way he. I think anytime you have the experience of growing up in this society you are turned to that kind of thing and so when i went to baghdad as a bureau chief, i was just noticing how some correspondence would snap their fingers and say bring me this or bring me that and it felt kind of colonial and i knew i didnt want that kind of bureau and so i was probably the first bureau chchief to institute the working hours, vacations, i would bring in a masseuse. I really tried to be attuned to the fact the local staff are the ones keeping us alive who know the stories and so if you dont appreciate that its not only a decent thing to do but its trying to build a working newsroom like iraq and so my identity played into that. There is no secondtier if i ride in an army car can you write in the army car. My line is on the story and youve done just as much as reporting you dont have a wine with me and that is something im glad to see changing in the industry and i think that it took building up that kind of culture is. The memoir that we are all hoping one day. Can you tell us a bit about why you chose to become a journalist and how you feel your career has developed. I remember my dad picking up papers from the region. Just clearly you didnt see it as anything other than it was. It didnt have to be that way and come into contact with those two read. Getting to see that there is a place for me here and the need for me here and this kind of thing. Going back to the iraq umn and going over there to the young bureau chief it becomes critically apparent it becomes things are not going well and we are not going to believe behind great working institutions, and so what kind of eco what can i do. I was going to build up a a newsroom and that is what we do. We observed and we go. Looking at how the career has progressed today it is fascinating and im curious how you feel about the transition from that sort of coverage to what you are covering today. In preparation for the publication date today flipping through the essay is. This is like a cautionary tale because these are women telling the stories of what happened when these schisms in society reached their natural end and it was actually terrifying to read it again after the week that he had in this country. So, i do hope that people see that when they say we are going to lead to a civil war we just need to get it over with. I agree with things like that in that time researching the american militia. And just last summer from the militia members in michigan and my editor at the time is to call me and say okay im going to call youas at a certain time and ask how your cold is. And if you say yes you are fine and if you say im still kind of sick, that means bring on, we will get you out. And i promised myself this is a security protocol. You start with insurgents in iraq, you know, and here i am in michigan. How bizarre is that. So i do see that there are some important lessons to learn. My goal today it was hard to judge this stuff up. These are more than a story to me. You are working in close quarters and its a natural endl environment to be in the pores on. So you remember that and just this morning i was reading that and completely forgot. This is something that my friends made up because there areen these long traffics flowsn baghdad and there were bombs of time. So we would be stuck in traffic and made up the name is that the one. We would look at cars that one looks heavy, that is definitely the one. Or that truck has an unmarked crate on the back, thats the one that is going to blow up. Owthats how we amused ourselves in traffic. And so, you know, now it is humor that emerges in a place like that and so ye answer yes e living some of that and it is painful but also we got through. There were definitely tears. The theme that runs through many of the chapters in this book for people that are kind of stuck between the twoo identitis or covered the experience fo and im not sure if you would relate at all, but they feel very guilty about having access as they do and you mentioned passports, and they are able to eleave. They will be working for major Media Outlets would skip them protections and they also feel they were boring job is because they were not born into conflict in the way that their friends might have been. And i think that that feels quite evident and i wonder if you experience similar feelings are felt throughout your career. You did touch on it a little bit in the privilege you had and wanted to help others but maybe did not have that or wouldnt have. So i wondered if yo you experied that in various ways over the years. Absolutely. Every time i, you know, six weeks on, two weeks off. And i was like i cant wait. And then i would wave goodbye and i would get to go and if they i dont think it was shattering. There was the time i would never say that because the stigma like the women of more. I think it is very important to seek care and attention and often it is and they are and as an available to them for some reason. So yes, and i remember the therapist saying you have to be convinced either there as a visitor and you dont have the support networks that they have. You finish the story and going to the hotel room and they do go home to their families and their kids and their loved ones and so nethere is a built in support networks that you dont have as an outsider that is mitigated and of course the best that you can do and i found the best way to mitigate that is just take the platform and use it the best you can to make sure you are not a place for the voiceless but they were actually passing the mic. I think we are coming close to the end. I wonder if you have a particular story you covered that moved you so much you think the characters i know it is difficult for every one. At different stages, you know. I remember in 2004 when i was locked into basically a shrine and we had others on the other ade of the American Forces and we were having bombs dropped on us that night and i remember there was no electricity. The shrines are a place that you can give solutions before prayer and so i would go in there and the iraqi women hockney take off your job and put it under water and put it back on soaking wet and that was the anecdote to the heat. So i saw an older woman there and she, her ears were ringing from the bombings and she was cleaning her ears and crying and i said dont cry. Its going to be okay. We are going to make it. She said no its because im thinking of those american boys. Dont they have mothers dont want them home. Any time i could capture that humanity and people trying to keep that in check on the emergence of this allencompassing war that could swallow you up what those were e moments that stick with me. That was a beautiful anecdote and won as many in the chapter. I just wanted to ask one final question. Its something that you mentioned in the chapter is that actually you face kind of i to say actually maybe you can categorize it for me when the editor is trying to cover stories so what was that story. There were some in the press corps at the think covering the war means covering the political and thats it. They are at the front line. And i was much more interested in the changes of the battles betweethat we left behind into e civilian life and the societies and cultures, thousands of vehicles that they are disrupting. And so, yes i did focus on this and a colleague asked me what are you working on and i told him and he said hannah and her pip. Poor iraqi peoples stories. I really tried to push through the archetype into the stereotype to make the iraqi women come to life in all of their dimension of. That is a good segue. Please raise your hand high so i can see you. Hello, thank you so much for coming. I have a question for both of you actually. Something that we have seen a lot recently speaking on my own experience you have a difficult time for the correspondence its something a lot of the correspondence struggle with now. What is your advice as far as the stories that we are lacking and what is the hunger here and what is the appetite and you start to touch upon breaking stereotypes and what are the stories that develop breakthrough win the war was dominating the headlines. Im not going to answer the question. Im just going to give a shout out to those in this section of the book. One of the inspirations behind the book, she was the chief many of you probably know her work and she wrote a gorgeous essay that i put up on my blog when i was a lonely blogger. I am so pleased to see you here today. Ni have nothing for those on te [inaudible] yes, it does. Its very hard. I heard the same frustrations. What does it take to break through him and when it does breakthrough something tragic, i dont know, i just have to believe that a good story is a good story, and i remember when the fatigue set in as it did and i covered it off and on for a decade, and yes at some point it is formulaic. It becomes the formula. So i was just trying not to let myself open to the formula and how could w they elevate that formula and what is one way we can move in and what about something i heard in the washington post. He came to our class and said no matter how big the story is, you can always find universal theme is in it and so i would look for things like marriage, weddings, birthdays and try to find the familiar frame. The names are unfamiliar, the religion is unfamiliar. At least there is some in that connects and that makes them keep reading. I agree it is getting harder and harder to find what breaks through this right now. Have a question about putting together the book and i wondered if you could tell us you could talk about the commodity that was built between and if you have plans after the buck to continue to and where do you hope to take it from here. The sisterhood is expanding. I personally did know some of the women either personally because they were in similar circles or i knew them because of their work because i have been following thehad beenfollod admired them for years so the process of putting it together for me was the most challenging part because there are so many incredible arab women doing such incredible work, doing this amazing work that it was so hard sfor me to go. I had 90 people in this book or more and i had to limit that to enough for one book so i had to think of the ages and backgrounds, the type of work they were doing some of the countries they come from. There were so many things to take into consideration it was painful at certain points to say i have to exclude these women because they are also lebanese and other personal many things to take into the duration. [inaudible] there is more work to be done in this space. I dont think that im going to enadded another at least not in the next two years. The format is up for debate but i hope to continue to celebrate arab women journalists and women in general. That is a bit of a mouthful. Were you surprised by anything that camean out . You have seen all of them in all of their forms. How do they vote for you we never met before today but i felt like i knew her very well. I researched the extent to which the authors were honest and raw and intimate in the essays. Its not that i didnt expect them to write honestly but its that they shared their struggles in such a harrowing way i found myself in tears when i was editing the book and also there were a couple of offers experiencing, themselves on the fields but they were also not quite ready to articulate the trauma or what story they wanted to tell so i had to then help them and tell them please open up to me this way or that, so it was a delicate balance and i found about rising through, we were able to push through whatever barriers they had and hoght really openly and honestly. One that comesir to mind as you mentioned is such a raw and honest account and it also reflects the state of the world today. Its not an uplifting book, its not a beach read but there are dark humorous throughout and ier was surprised by certain details that shook me. There is another detail a palestinian journalist says at some point she had been covering the war and had to help a mother that lost her child to breathe and the way that she described it, i dont want to do that myself, but the way that she described it was so harrowing and there is another piece by a journalistst said she is talking about how this is day to day life and to a certain extent many people start to feel desensitized andnd she sees blod on her car and there was a bombing and she starts wiping the blood off her car and says what are we having for lunch today and i was surprised by the extent to which they were sharing the details and being honest about that and how i reacted by default which is how i got incredibly emotional and i cried a lot when i was both editing and reading and rereading. I hope that answers your question. How about we go this single because that wouldse betray and actually think that strategy works. Andd then to say and to connect it was sources. And then fight their families to become journalists. It is never about redundancy because the stories themselves were so unique. And when we first pitched the book to publishers who said something that these feel redundant and a certain point. That was the one rejection because i felt completely betrayed what we were trying to do that every single story is unique. The arab world is so rich and diverse even with some similarities it is unique. But ipp definitely feel in retrospect maybe there is something missing that i could not include more women. I have two questions. Having my son to the environment im hoping that you dont have to do that. Do you feel you have to do that now . That is one question. A totally unrelated u question is the comment about the civil war to say i feel the civil war in my bones coming. Having left lebanons i would like to elaborate for what can we do to alert the people . And the one that shows is that people p shouldnt dismiss it as impossible and in some way we are still fighting the echoes off it. So i just think on the civil war just dont rule it out its not impossible because it just but to be impossible is a mistake and i cover extremism. And i try to put in check because i feel in a very myopic way. And in this country. I dont know if i would use that term and if i was embedded and to pop up in the tank. I need your assistance otherwise i just have to be myself that when my doctor in cairo said come back. [laughter] so to a time and effort because as a woman because i had to go on the blackhawk apache. With a belly out to hear and he said no you are not getting on this. And in the medics. And to support me i was not allowed to make those trips after i was pregnant and then i want to be able to be pregnant and be myself. But with that philosophy. And word whistle at that title. And that resonated with me. And with that conflict that had so many effects. Im sure we had this project for a while now. And try to advocate the story and then to get rejection. And then to navigate that route. And i take rejection pretty hard. Im not a graceful person when it comes to rejection. When if you have an idea that you are passionatend about but you have to be committed to and also take the feedback really well. And think about how you h might be able to refrain whatever you arera proposing i would have a couple of people with completely different visions for this book because i didnt feel it was compatible and i would have been come compromising too much in terms of my own vision i believe there is an appetite for the thhis voices because i straddle the western and the arab world , the people i was pitching to fully understand the way that i do so from this Vantage Point i will find someone who shares this vision and the voices do need to be amplified. I found that i person who works with me. She is amazing. I just went to take the rejection very seriously i took the feedback very seriously. You might get 100 rejections and one yes. And to understand the genre so the overarching point of my essay the whole reason was to reframe how we think of womens issues especially in that region. And it is a beyond a moral thing to say to cover them because the voices heard. It is bad and lazy journalism toot have interlocutors to go interview the culture and religion and history. I think that is journalistic malpractice to weed out the huge chunk of the population. Just to reframe that here we are liberating the voices of these women. I completely agree. And then they say hey. You want to amplify those voices. And people are frustrated now with the idea and to give those nuances those details and the intimacy that doesnt mean their work is biased to provide that understanding of the story or perhaps someone that is not familiar of the culture in the same wayay t and its important to recognize that people are frustrated with the fact the narrative has been dominated for so long. This cheney this year as we know it was awarded two incredible women but i think they need to be protected at ehe same level of their counterparts and should be more diverse. So perhaps that gap in the narrative people are so frustrated that there, is something that says lets do Something Different i think it is a timing thing. The trump administration. That we need to hear more minority voices. And the International Media foundation and not on the board many moons i ago to give six iraqi women from mcclatchy and collectively gave them the courage in journalism award. W and actually it is not a story those who had very little journalistic experience come into their own and be brilliant writers with an incredible honor and the speech they gave up on accepting it in the essay. I want to give credit for the resilience and i became very attached to so many of the women even though these were writing in countries and you still feel hopeful for their own futures because thats what they have to do and that is their job and she says the last sentence in her essay and they were committed to try to take photographs in yemen and then she says what one when i think of giving up i remember that i cannot because many are relying on me to show me and that is such a moving in on his sentence for me and we need to continue to pass it on to the next but when youre dealing with tormented tragedy we must have people who are committed to continue to work towards good and that really comes through i think throughout the book not just in that section. Thank you for asking that. And partly because the aspiring journalist and to say you cant wait to do this. And all the things and now its cool to see. But i know so many people who do this kind of work. And that we were in baghdad together at least the beautiful latticework and we use to say we will by twin houses on the tigris and raise our kids. This will be our life and be best to use forever. Of course then i was sent to cairo and she goes into exile because of the war and the eight years of trying to get ndresettle resettled. Lets give another round of applause for hannah. [applause] just ask for everybody to sit tight we willl present the signing area. Welcome. The scheduling of this book and panel is timing considering the crisis with iran we will get to that eventually but entitled