Mai Ghoussoub

Mai Ghoussoub (Arabic: مي غصوب‎; 2 November 1952, in Beirut – 17 February 2007, in London) was a Lebanese writer, artist, publisher and human rights activist. She was the co-founder in London of the Saqi bookshop and publishing house.

Life[]

Her father, , a Maronite Christian, was a professional footballer. She studied at the French lycée in Beirut, then mathematics at the American University of Beirut, and French literature at the Lebanese University,^[1] and later sculpture at Morley College and the in London.

She was a Trotskyite at the start of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975, but soon became disillusioned and moved on to humanitarian work, establishing two medical dispensaries in a poor Muslim area after the doctors had left and the pharmacies had closed.^[2]

She lost an eye in 1977, after her car was hit by a shell while taking someone to hospital. She moved to London to be treated, and spent time in Paris, where she worked as a journalist for Arab newspapers.^[1] She wrote Comprendre le Liban with her childhood friend , under the pseudonyms and .

In 1979, she founded the bookshop in Westbourne Grove, London, with Gaspard, the first London bookshop to specialise in Arabic works.^[3] They began to publish books in Arabic in 1983. They sold the Serpent's Tail imprint to in 1987, but continued with the Saqi and Telegram imprints. An Arabic publishing house, , was founded in Beirut in 1990.

She was a feminist, publishing works on a range of controversial issues and producing challenging artistic installations. She wrote for openDemocracy.^[4]

Her autobiographical book, Leaving Beirut: women and the wars within, was published in 1998. She was passionately opposed to censorship, arguing in her 2006 play , performed at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, and Dominion Theatre in London, the Unity Theatre, Liverpool, and the in Beirut, that "Words don't kill; humans do."

Family[]

She married twice. She married the Lebanese writer in 1991. She died in London. She was survived by her father, mother, Maggie Ghoussoub, sister, Houda, and husband, Hazem Saghieh.^[3]

Works[]

• Imagined Masculinities: Male identity and culture in the modern Middle East. London: Saqi. 2000. ISBN 978-0-86356-042-2.
• Leaving Beirut. Saqi. 1998. reprint, Saqi, 2007, ISBN 978-0-86356-676-9
• Rebecca O'Connor, ed. (2008). Selected Writings. Saqi.
• Haideh Moghissi, ed. (2005). "Feminism - or the Eternal Masculine - in the Arab World". Women and Islam: Women's movements in Muslim societies. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-32421-2.

Notes[]

References[]

Lloyd, Fran (1999). Contemporary Arab Women's Art: Dialogues of the present. London: WAL Women's Art Library. ISBN 1860645992.

External links[]

• Saqi books
• "Remembering Mai Ghoussoub (1952-2007)", The Guardian, 22 February 2007