Breaking Taboos: Arab Breast Cancer Activism in Art and Popular Culture

In this seminar, I examine the breast cancer accounts of four Arab female artists and media figures who have spoken out in public about their illness experience: the Egyptian TV presenter Basma Wahba and the actress Yasmine Ghaith; the Iraqi actress Namaa Al-Ward; and the Lebanese pop singer Elissa. By reading their testimonies against the backdrop of critical literature on illness narratives and memoirs, as well as on cancer narratives and activism, I ask: how are the accounts of these women’s cancer diagnosis and treatment disclosed and described? In what medium do they communicate and circulate their breast cancer experiences? What significance do these public disclosures have on challenging and breaking the Arab taboo of cancer? In conclusion, I argue that these women’s willingness to share their stories in public constitutes an important form of multi-media activist intervention – visual, sonic, and performative – that is playing a key role in the development of a breast cancer movement in the Arab world.

About the speaker:

Abir Hamdar is Professor in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University and a playwright. She is the author of The Female Suffering Body: Illness and Disability in Modern Arabic Literature (Syracuse University Press, 2014). She has also co-edited a volume of essays entitled Islamism and Cultural Expression in the Arab World (Routledge, 2014). Her play The Silicone Bomb was performed in Beirut, Alexandria and Jordan. Her ethnodramas I Am Waiting for You and Hair Talk on Arab female cancer experiences premiered in Beirut, Lebanon in 2017 and 2020 and were also staged at the Naef K. Basile Cancer Institute of The American University of Medical Centre, Beirut, Lebanon.

The event is free to attend, please book your tickets via Eventbrite.

This event is hosted by Science of Human Experience as part of the 2023-24 IMH Hidden Experience Seminar Series, which centres on hidden experiences of health and illness. For more information about the series, please visit our website.

Please note, the zoom details for online attendees will be circulated 24 hrs before the start of the event.