Loading ...Palestinian secrets worth sharing
As a young child born in the city of Jerusalem Nevien Shaabneh dreamt of nothing else but writing; reciting her stories out loud, passers-by would pat her on the head once they listened to her tales. At just five years old Shaabneh regarded writing as serious work spending hours filling notebook after notebook with precious words which paved the way for her journey to becoming an author. Soon after she immigrated with her family to Chicago, US, where these notebooks grew and matured with her and over the years stacked up her room. But they were put aside as Shaabneh became focused on gaining an education.
Achieving a Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and Master of Arts from Saint Xavier University, distracted Shaabneh further from pursuing her dream of writing which then became a distant memory as marriage, children and work took over. Since graduating she has taught American Literature and Contemporary Literature to high school students.
But one day the longing for her childhood dream and the nostalgia of the past became stronger and so she brushed the dust off one of her manuscripts. This gave birth to “Secrets under the olive tree” which was published as Shaabneh’s first ever novel.
Her earliest writings were in Palestine where she says: “I began writing before I was able to write. I sat for hours and wrote stories and letters to relatives that I would hand deliver.” Surrounded by pomegranates, grape vines, olive trees, a breeze that carried with it the indulgent scent of warm bread, mint tea and a friendly hello is how Shaabneh remembers Palestine, the place that inspired her passion for writing and the focus of her novel.
“Secrets under the olive tree” chronicles the life of a young Palestinian girl, Layla, and her family. Shaabneh says the “characters are not meant to represent the typical Palestinian family nor are they meant to represent Muslims. The characters in the novel have their demons and flaws.”
It is in Layla’s young adulthood that she is forced to confront her cultural limitations while trying to navigate through life’s complexities. Ultimately, these decisions shape her future and affect all those around her. Stripped down to its core, it is a story about humans, because the point that Shaabneh wants to convey is that “we are all equally human. We all have our own stories to tell.”
Olive trees are such an integral aspect of Palestinian culture and economy that it made perfect sense to invoke them into the book’s title. The parts of the book about Palestine, the uprooting of the olive trees and the representation of the apartheid system that currently exists, are all based on the unfortunate reality in the region. However, Shaabneh insists that “Layla and all of the characters in the book are just that; characters. They are figments of my very active imagination.”
The book portrays a dark and unfavourable image of Arab men with the exception of two characters, yet Shaabneh stresses that this is “a book about human struggle and not letting the struggles we have define who we are and that Layla’s life does not define Arabs and Muslims for there is a danger in telling a single story.”
Shaabneh explains that growing up, she read many books that enriched her understanding of American culture, but quickly came to realise that the fabric of American culture “did not include people like me. I did not read books in which the characters were Arab and Muslim. And post 9/11, Arab and Muslim lives were only talked about in the contexts of oppression and terrorism.”
This convinced her further that Arabs and Muslims live diverse, complex lives that depended on the same factors that impact non-Arabs and non-Muslims: education, socioeconomic status, upbringing and family. She knew that just as there isn’t one Christian or Caucasian community, there isn’t one Arab or Muslim community. There are communities of Muslims and communities of Arabs. Religion and culture are only factors that influence behaviour.
Some readers were worried that people may mistake the villainous men in the book as typical of Arab males thus perpetuating a stereotype. Shaabneh acknowledges that “unfortunately, Arab males are some of the most demonised men in the world. It saddens me to think that some people may judge a nationality or ethnicity based on the characters’ actions. As a writer, I cannot limit my story telling because some people will stereotype. We cannot let others’ ignorance dictate our lives and our art.”
She says readers from different parts of the world reached out to her and felt connected to the story in their own personal ways. “A friend who grew up in the south related to the patriarchal family dynamic in the book, whereas a middle-aged woman from New Jersey shared with me her road to recovery after surviving an assault. A mother of three from the UK related to feeling inferior to her brothers because her father felt burdened by having a girl and even a former student of mine reached out to me to share that she saw her mother in the character Miriam; finally understanding why her mother acted like she did. It wasn’t because she is Arab; it is because her mother was a victim of domestic violence.”
In the book Layla experiences discrimination as a foreigner and Muslim in the US and oppression as a woman in an Arab society, yet Shaabneh has mixed views about the struggles that women endure. “The oppression that Layla faces in the US due to being a Muslim and Arab woman is very real. Islamophobia affects more women who wear hijab than women who do not because discrimination depends on the perceived outward appearance of the ‘other’,” Shaabneh explains.
She herself has experienced several forms of discrimination due to being Muslim and wearing the hijab. However, Shaabneh is adamant that Layla’s oppression is not due to her being Arab or Muslim. Layla’s father is an abusive alcoholic. Layla is a victim of domestic violence. This is the main reason for her oppression.
“Her culture does present her with some double standards in the treatment of men and women; however, these double standards are prevalent in many different cultures as well and arguably are more connected to her gender versus culture and religion.”
Rape in the book goes unpunished which leaves some readers wondering if this is the reality of the Arab world and in particular Palestine. However, Shaabneh believes this is a universal rather than a regional issue. “I think rape going unpunished is a reality around the world. Here in the US rape is a drastically underreported crime. Many women, regardless of culture or religion, do not report rape in fear of being stigmatised or due to feelings of shame and embarrassment.”
In spite of being raised in America, Shaabneh inheriting her family’s connection to the land of Palestine; she is all too aware of how difficult it was for her parents to leave it but knows that they left it to “offer my sister and me a better education, a safer environment, and what they viewed as a land of unlimited opportunities”.
However, this added pressure on Shaabneh because it meant “there were no excuses for Bs on report cards when your parents traded living in their home land for your future. The weight of that exchange rested heavily on my shoulders growing up. Here, in America, I had to fulfil their dreams of possibilities and success.”
Although her book is based in the US, Palestine and the occupation are woven into the entire story. Simple descriptions of the Separation Wall, the occupied versus unoccupied territories, the uprooting and burning of the country have been included in the story. Shaabneh says she did not want the novel to make an outward political statement but she admits that “you cannot write a novel about a Palestinian family and ignore the issues going on in the region.” She firmly believes that the novel gives the political issues a personal perspective and that a human touch can sometimes do more to raise awareness than statistics and lectures.
Shaabneh sees herself telling the stories others will not tell; giving a voice to the voiceless. She sees a future in Palestinian fiction because “story telling is a powerful tool for change; Middle Easterners and Muslims are not tied to one set identity or one set course. Our story could not be told in one book, because we do not share one chapter. We are a collection of stories.” She believes stories are able to build bridges between people from different backgrounds.
It is for this reason that Shaabneh’s next novel will also be about a Palestinian family; chronicling the life of an upscale Palestinian family living in New York City with flashbacks to Palestine. It is primarily about the defining decisions that shape our lives. As a Palestinian writer, Shaabneh believes her contribution to keeping her country’s culture and history alive is by ensuring her characters are Palestinian. After all, as long as the land is referenced with “the softness of a people who long for it, the Palestinian identity will survive.”
Source: www.middleeastmonitor.com