Through what is possible in the interior of the human being and his psychological complexity, the Lebanese novelist Hanin Al -Sayegh (1986) dived with her novel “The Charter of Women” in the rich, cultural, spiritual, and human, and humanitarian, and tries to dismantle his social and mental structure, through her novel “Amal Bou Nimr”, which lives in a conservative rural life in her village in Mount Lebanon, and in which she clashes with customs and traditions of life Including others, to draw for itself in the future contrary to the future that the father formed for her and her sisters in a manner that is appropriate for his limited world.
The novel “The Charter of Women” published by the Perist House in Beirut in 2023 is the first novelist of the Lebanese writer who works in teaching and literary translation, after 3 poetry collections: “Let it” (2016), “Old Spirit” (2018), and “Manara to mislead time” (2021).
In addition to the success of Al -Sayegh, through her first novel – which she considers a message of loving to the Druze community – in reaching the short list of the International Award for the Arabic Novel of 2025, it conveyed the details of this society to the German reader, after the release of the translation of the “Women’s Charter” in German in March 2024 by “DTV”.
On her novel – which she says she was written in great transparency and sincerity with the self – and the related topics, Al -Jazeera Net had this dialogue with Hanin Al -Sayegh:
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You came to the novel after 3 poetry collections, what does the novel give to the nostalgia of Al -Sayegh and the poetry is not provided?
Poetry, by its nature, tends to use an intense and coded language in order to express mysterious and volatile feelings, and the poem often has interpretations of its readiness. When I write the poem, it does not concern me much how the reader will understand it.
When I resorted to the novel, I was seeking clarity in expressing ideas and issues that worry me. And the audience of the novel often engages with these topics, so he supports or opposes them, which contributes to their spread more.
When I was writing poetry, my reading environment was very limited and did not go beyond some cultural circles, while the novel made me a wide audience between the ocean and the Gulf, because the questions and issues that I raised in my novel concern many, regardless of their affiliations and cultural and social backgrounds.
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In addition to your preoccupation with the issues of freedom and the rights of women, what does it occupy you in creative work, whether it is a novel or poetry?
I am concerned with human interior and psychological complexities. I am also concerned with marginalized characters in life and literature, and I am concerned that the reader identifies with the ideas or characters that I present in my literary works, so do not like the fantasy nor the dustobia a lot, and I tend to write more realistic.
I also care that the text is multi -layer so that each recipient understands it according to the degree of consciousness and literary ability. Therefore, I try to be my language, despite its loyalty to literary standards, available to the ordinary reader and does not heal about it, which is a very difficult equation.
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How did you receive the news of the arrival of the “Women’s Charter” to the short list of the International Prize for the Arabic Novel, and did you expect your first novel work to enjoy all this celebration?
I saw a lot before writing this novel, and I did not start writing it until after I became sure that I would present an authentic and mature deed, yet I am in my nature kept my expectations always low, so I surprised me the great celebration of critics and readers and the great spread of the novel since the first months of its release.
As for a committee of critics and translators from different countries the novel as one of the most important works of the year, it is a joyful thing and renews our hope that good works will inevitably obtain their share of appearing and celebrating.
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In one of your previous interviews, you said that you are writing to understand the world. Did this novel help you deepen your understanding of the Druze world?
In order to sympathize with a group of people, we need to live between them and understand their motives before we criticize some of their behaviors, and this is what I tried to do in my novel. The Druze world is a cultural, spiritual, and human world, but it is only the theater on which the events of the novel revolve, and the literary work by its nature transcends its geographical and cultural borders and raises global issues related to man in general.
The great interaction with my novel in Germany after its translation has proven that the themes of the novel not only concerned the Druze or Arab society. Returning to your question, this novel helped me understand myself in the first place. And self -understanding is the first condition for a person to understand the world more. The ability to sympathize is the first key to understanding.
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To mention the translation of the novel into the German language, how did you find the reception of the German reader?
Also in Germany, the novel was received with a warm part of critics and readers, and their interest in the Druze community, not even the Lebanese society as a whole, was the reason for their celebration of it, but rather praised the literary value of the work and its importance for women everywhere in the world, especially with regard to the psychology of women, the dualism of motherhood and a feeling of guilt.
Many readers also praised the freedom that the novel addressed, as the “Amal” journey in the novel was an internal liberation journey before it was a journey of liberation from a patriarchal community or a authoritarian husband.
Many readers praised the idea that “Amal” did not come because of a savior man or a feminist organization, but rather because of honesty with self, education and work, which breaks the stereotype of women in Arab societies.
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Many readers link between you and the heroine of the novel “Amal Bou Nimr”, especially since you drew a similar path to your life, how do you see this link?
I only write about what I know and what I feel, so it is normal for my first novel to intersect with some of the events that I lived or lived. But the novel is not a biography, because it leans in many places on imagination and the creation of personalities and events that are not in reality.
In most countries of the world, critics and readers stop searching for the writer or writer between the lines of the novel, because what concerns them in the first place is the quality of work literary and human.
But eavesdropping is still a disease in some readers, who miss the opportunity to search for themselves in literary work, and they are looking for – for that – for the personal life of the writer or writer. But this is not found literature.
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The poetic language that distinguishes this novel, is cut by short dialogues in the Lebanese dialect, what are the reasons for this employment?
The cultural and linguistic foundation of the place where the events of the novel revolves is an important literary technique. Then the establishment of the characters comes, with each character to have its external qualities, internal worlds and their own language. The use of the Lebanese village dialect in some dialogues was aimed at giving credibility to the characters and the place where the events revolve.
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You consider the “Code of Women” a love message to the conservative Druze community. How does this society receive your message?
Honesty is the first conditions for love, whether with self or with the other. And honesty is a double -edged sword, as it touches the hearts that yearn for understanding and minds that look forward to change.
But it also shocks the minds that are bound by obedience and glorifying immobility. And I wrote the “Code of Women” with great transparency and sincerity with the self, and honesty is a mirror in which the other sees his good deeds and disadvantages without cosmetic or forgery, and some people do not like to see their faults.
Of course, the novel was subjected to a severe attack from some circles in the Druze community that does not accept criticism and does not even accept lighting on the minority community, but this is not compared to the great celebration that the novel met, not only from the intellectuals and intellectuals of Druze, but also from the Druze sheikhs who wrote to me very impressive messages in which we thanked me for highlighting their lives, suffering, and hardness.
(Tagstotranslate) Culture (T) Arab Poetry and Novel (T) (T) Lebanon