Asmaa al-Ghoul is a Palestinian journalist and author. Born in 1982 in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and the eldest of nine siblings, Asmaa grew up in a society dominated by political strife, corruption and male chauvinism, but also by an incredible humanity. Described by The New York Times as a woman "known for her defiant stance against the violations of civil rights in Gaza," Asmaa al-Ghoul maintains a large social media following on her self-styled channel, where she has delivered some of her most important breaking news. At the age of 18, Al-Ghoul won the Palestinian Youth Literature Award. In 2010, she received a Hellman/Hammett grant from Human Rights Watch, aimed at helping writers "who dare to express ideas that criticize official public policy or people in power." In 2012, Al-Ghoul was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award by the prestigious International Women's Media Foundation. She currently works for Al Monitor, a Washington D.C. based media site specializing in the Middle-East and lives in Southern France, where she is writing her next book.
A Rebel in Gaza is a love letter to an unloved place [...] a
sparkling memoir. [...] Asmaa al-Ghoul, who was born in the Rafah
refugee camp at the southern end of the Strip, writes with clarity
and tenderness of [Gaza's harsh] realities. [...] Despite it all,
she insists: "People continued to laugh in Gaza." Her own laughter
bubbles through the pages of A Rebel in Gaza: a stubborn, defiant
joy in living, as keen as her rage or her grief.
[...]
In a foreword, [Al-]Ghoul writes of her eagerness to avoid "the
prevailing clich�s" that might confine her narrative. The usual
smeary lenses through which the region is viewed are blessedly
absent. There are many villains and few heroes, but even the
villains are decent sometimes. Ghoul is equally allergic to
pieties. In an early chapter, she commits the cardinal heresy of
admitting that she has no desire to return to the village from
which her grandmother fled in 1948 and considers the refugee camp
in which she was born to be her only homeland.
[...]
The world would be poorer without [Al-]Ghoul's voice, without her
warmth, her fury and her laughter.
- Ben Ehrenreich, The Guardian
Al-Ghoul [makes] much of literature's ability to subvert
doctrinaire conceptual frameworks. [...In so] doing, [she] enables
Palestinian society to retain a measure of psychological health.
Nothing could be more important, as the sad truth is that the
occupation shows no sign of coming to an end.
- Rayyan Al-Shawaf, The Believer
Al-Ghoul dares to build bridges, to pierce through propaganda,
stereotypes, and bigotry, and to provide multicolored snapshots of
a conflict that's too often presented in superficial
black-and-white sketches. Her stunning book celebrates women's role
in resisting hatred, in affirming life while oppressive patriarchal
regimes perpetuate war and death. It's a powerful self-portrait of
a woman who refuses to cave, who, in fact, chooses to put on a
ruby-colored dress and stand out from the crowd: a rebel from Gaza
and for a more just world.
- Women's Review of Books
Fierce and defiant, Al-Ghoul's book is as much a celebration of
Gazan resilience in the face of raging internal and external
conflicts as it is of one woman's life-affirming strength of will.
An eloquent, provocative, and timely memoir.
- Kirkus Reviews
Refreshing and eye-opening [...] This memoir was a page turner, and
I appreciated Asmaa's challenging perspective, her outspokenness
and her strength. [...] I would recommend this memoir to anyone
interested in the ongoing conflict in Gaza, or to anyone who wishes
to read a thrilling memoir by a strong, brave and inspiring woman
living under difficult circumstances.
- Sayeh Hassan, sister-hood
Debut author Al-Ghoul, a journalist from Rafah, picks apart the
paradoxes of being female in Palestine, illustrating in vivid and
direct language how Hamas and Fatah, on one hand, and the Israelis,
on the other, conspire to restrict acceptable behavior for women in
the territory. [...] This searching exploration illuminates the
crossroads of gender and Palestinian identity.
- Publishers Weekly
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