Sharjah: Women’s empowerment took centre stage at Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) during a talk by Lebanese-Canadian author and activist Najwa Zebian.
The 31-year-old writer, in conversation with presenter Sally Mousa during a session on ‘How literature inspires the empowerment of women’, gave the audience lessons in “self-love”.
Zebian, whose fourth book ‘Welcome Home: A guide for building a home for your soul’ was released in June, was discussing what makes relationships work.
She agreed with Mousa’s observation that some women’s personal value is determined by their relationship with other people – whether they feel “worthy or not worthy”. She stressed the need for an empowerment of young girls and women so they can see themselves as the leaders of their lives.
While on the topic of self-love discussed in her book, Zebian said: “To me self-love means giving love to yourself the way you give it to someone you love. So, self-love is not a noun, it is a verb. If you seek to please someone when you are tired, it comes from a place of abandonment or people-pleasing attitude”.
What is genuine love?
Genuine love doesn’t require the other person to give it back to you, she maintained. “If I only feel loved by you, only if you do exactly for me what I do for you, that is not love. That is validation.”
She remembered how her parents wanted her to be a dentist but how she became an author because she lived her own dream.
Take time out for a book
Also at SIBF, four performers roamed the halls and aisles of SIBF at Expo Centre Sharjah with tiny suitcases in each hand.
The live show titled ‘Time is Running’ depicts the artists racing against time in a journey full of challenges and laughter – and yet taking a moment to sit and read an imaginary book.
“‘Time is Running’ is a reminder that we need to read more, explore the world, and lose ourselves in new experiences,” said Roy Tukkers, the creative mind behind Tukkers Connexion. “We need to hurry, and sometimes we must slow down, and take time out to read real books – especially now when people are hooked on to their phones.”
The 40th edition of SIBF, held under the theme ‘There’s always a right book’, concludes on Saturday.
