Date: 21 September 2016
Country: UK, London
The Women’s Interfaith Network (WIN) is organising an event “Women in Conflict from a Writer’s Perspective”. Shami Chakrabarti will talk to Elif Shafak, Bahiyyih Nakhjanvani and Saurav Dutt on 21 September at Adelaide House in London.
WIN is a movement of women committed to building a more trusting and inclusive society. WIN is also an organisation that would like to see “a deep-seated change in the way they relate to people of other religions and cultures, where similarities are celebrated and differences are not considered hurdles to friendship”.
Bahiyyih Nakhjanvani is an Iranian who was educated in the UK and USA and now lives in France. In 2007 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Liege. Her books have been translated into many languages. Her novel The Woman Who Read Too Much is set in the 19 Century and centres around a poet and scholar who shocked the political powers of Qajar Persia and violated religious convention by casting aside her veil.
Elif Shafak is a Turkish columnist, speaker and academic. She has published 14 books, nine of which are novels. She writes fiction in both Turkish and English, blending Western and Eastern storytelling traditions on stories of women, minorities, Immigrants and youth. Her writing draws on diverse cultures and literary traditions reflecting her interests in history, philosophy, Sufism and cultural politics. She was awarded the title Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres in 2010.
Saurav Dutt, a trainee lawyer of Bengali parentage, is the Guardian Books and LA Times Books short listed British author of fiction and non-fiction works who has written for The Guardian and The Independent. He is a novelist, independent film producer, playwright, screenwriter and above all an accomplished author. His latest novel The Butterfly Room challenges the stigmas attached to gender, sex, discrimination, homophobia and domestic violence.