Fatena in Zedelgem and St Niklaas

After the long drive to Zedelgem, we were rewarded with an interesting bunch of people who had braved the rain and darkness. Karl introduced Pen-Flanders and the work we do for authors who had to flee their country. Fatena is from Gaza and she read from her book "Gods bedrog" (freely translated in English as "Gods Cheating").

The  question and answer part was very interesting and also the texts she wrote by pictures taken during the last 51 days war in the Gaza strip. It was heart wrenching to see the children who has been killed and the unsurmountable grief of the parents... People asked question also about religion. Fatena having read the Koran and the bible spoke about having worn the hijab and how by reading the koran
she stopped being 'so radical'. Her performance in Arabic is haunting, her rendition in Dutch by Karel was heartfelt. Here to the right you see him next to the very enthousiastic Misses "Hemelwater" as we accidentally called her.

The young people were very inquisitive and asked questions, not only about the Koran, and the war in Gaza, but also about PEN-Flanders. Some private talks with the students afterwards were quite interesting too.