Fawzia koofi biography of william shakespeare
Many prominent Afghan female leaders have fled or are now hiding
In recent weeks, Taliban fighters have fired shots in the air to disperse protests in Kabul and other cities by women demanding participation in government as well as rights to education and jobs.A major rallying point for these protests have been the exclusion of women from the new cabinet unveiled last week, a step back from U.S.-backed governments that included female lawmakers and technocrats.
The Taliban have said they would respect women’s rights within the limits of Islamic law, allowing them to go to work or school as long as they don’t mix with men- an arrangement that doesn’t often work in reality. The group has also sought to show the world they have female support, with armed fighters last weekend accompanying hundreds of fully veiled women who carried banners supporting the Taliban and saying the female leaders who fled Afghanistan don’t represent them.
Here are some prominent female politicians who have left Afghanistan for fear of reprisals from the Taliban or went into hiding:
Fawzia Koofi, former member of Parliament, 46
Koofi, who represented northern Badakshan province, was the vice president of Afghanistan’s National Assembly. In the months before the Taliban took Kabul, she had participated in talks with the group to urge that women have more say in policy decisions.
As a single parent, Koofi’s advocacy of women’s issues made her unpopular with conservatives- leading to multiple assassination attempts, including one last year. Shortlisted for for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020, Koofi left the country two weeks after the Taliban took control and is now lobbying governm
Next week, watch for Lauren Fox‘s delicious new chick lit novel, David Rosenfelt‘s clever legal thriller-cum-mystery and Tatiana de Rosnay’s latest historical novel. Usual suspects include Anne Rice, Sophie Kinsella, James Patterson and Michael Palmer. And in nonfiction, there’s a new biography of founding father James Madison.
Watch List
Friends Like Us by Lauren Fox (RH/Knopf; Dreamscape Audio) focuses on two close girlfriends, one of whom falls in love with the other’s oldest (male) friend. Booklist gives it a starred review: “the plot is pure Emily Giffin, but Fox tackles quarter-life angst with the honesty of Ann Packer’s The Dive from Clausen’s Pier (2002). The hard emotional truths go down easily amid the smart, rapid-fire wit. A pure if heartbreaking pleasure.”
Heart of a Killer by David Rosenfelt (Macmillan Minotaur Books; Listen & Live Audio) begins as a legal thriller about an underachieving lawyer assigned a case in which a convicted murder demands to end her life so she can donate her heart to her daughter. Then it becomes a murder mystery and finally a suspense novel. Kirkus calls it “warmhearted, satisfyingly inventive and almost too clever for its own good. Why isn’t Rosenfelt a household name like Michael Connelly and Jeffery Deaver?”
The House I Loved by Tatiana de Rosnay (Macmillan/St. Martin’s; Wheeler Large Print; Macmillan Audio) is set in Paris in the 1860s, as a woman fights the destruction of her home as hundreds of houses are being razed – and is written by the author of the popular book and film Sarah’s Key. PW says “though this epistolary narrative is slow to build, its fraught with drama… In Rose, one gets the clear sense of a woman losing her place in a changing world, but this isnt enough to make up for a weak narrative hung entirely on the eventual reveal of a long-buried secret.”
Usu Sexism in British kitchens, Clueless the musical, Non-harassment orders in Scotland, Raising the 'Sen-betweeners' A group of 70 female chefs and hospitality professionals have signed an open letter calling out what they call the ‘pervasive’ sexism in British kitchens. It’s in response to chef Jason Atherton saying he had never seen sexism in the kitchen - he has since clarified his comments, saying that he wasn't denying the existence of sexism, just that he hadn't 'witnessed it personally. Anita is joined by chef and founder of the all-female kitchen Darjeeling Express, Asma Khan, and chef and founder of Tiella, Dara Klein, who helped write the open letter. The beloved 1995 film Clueless, inspired by Jane Austen’s Emma, starred Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, and the late Brittany Murphy. Cher Horowitz is the most popular student at Beverly Hills High, renowned for her unique talent at finding love for others. Clueless the Musical has just opened at the Trafalgar Theatre in London. Anita discusses the adaptation and the story’s enduring appeal with the original writer/director Amy Heckerling and multi-platinum singer-songwriter KT Tunstall who has written the score. Montage of clips from the 1995 movie, Clueless, written and directed by Amy Heckerling, produced by Scott Rudin and Robert Lawrence, production companies Robert Lawrence Productions, Scott Rudin Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Amelia Price, a survivor of rape and assault by her ex-partner, has launched her own investigation into the Scottish justice system. Despite her attacker being convicted and sentenced to over four years in prison, the court refused to impose a non-harassment order (NHO) against him. With his release imminent, Price fears he could legally contact her. She has waived her anonymity to raise awareness about the issue and advocate for mandatory NHOs in domestic abuse cases. Anita speaks to her about her campaign alongside Fiona McMullen from ASSIST, a domest To this day, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke remains the most popular of William Shakespeare's plays. Certainly it is the one that has been performed most often by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) since its foundation as the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford upon Avon in 1879 and, says the RSC, "every minute of the day, it is being staged somewhere in the world". Now, in an inspirational tour of schools and universities, Hamlet is coming to the UAE, courtesy of a newly formed company of young British actors, three of whom were raised and educated in Abu Dhabi and who want to give something back to the education system that served them so well. Over the centuries the play's dramatic and familiar scenes have captured the imagination of artists as diverse as Delacroix, Millais and Moreau, and attracted the best actors of the day to its title role - from Shakespeare's contemporary Richard Burbage to Laurence Olivier, Richard Burton, Kenneth Brannagh, Derek Jacobi, Ian McKellan and Edwin Booth, the brother of the man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln. Its greatest asset, however, is its language, a gift that has seeped out into the vernacular, putting its words and phrases into the mouths of millions who have never even seen the play. When we say we are sick at heart, or claim there is method in our madness, or see something in our mind's eye or act more in sorrow than in anger, we are, often unknowingly, speaking lines penned in England in 1601. Likewise, when we utter such aphorisms as "neither a borrower nor a lender be", "there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of" and "brevity is the soul of wit", we are channelling the sagacity of Shakespeare - as we do when, stumped by some dilemma, we pose the rhetorical "to be or not to be, that is the question". The Bedouin Shakespeare Company, which flew into Abu Dhabi last week in preparation for a three-week tour of
Method in madness as Shakespeare comes to Abu Dhabi