Francesca Caferri Ghada interview for the Republic, on newsstands today:
Ghada Abdel Aal, 30, has started a blog that depopulated in Egypt
recounts the adventures to find a good match. And now comes a book
BRIDGET JONES THE ARAB WANTS A HUSBAND AND THE VEIL
The Bridget Jones of the Arab world is 30 years old, sweet face and dark eyes. She wears a large ring - no engagement, of course - and does not like being called Bridjet Jones. "In the beginning - he says - did not even know who he was. Nor I knew Sex and the City. For us, these films are not transmitted. "Yet it is difficult to escape the label: Ghada Abdel Aal is the young woman who was the first in Egypt, has dared to break the taboo of silence, raccontantdo publicly the desperate race of thousands of her peers and their families to grab a good husband. He did it in a blog (http://wanna-ba-bride.blogspot.com) about the adventures of her and her friends - all incorporated into the character of Bride, Bride in English - and which is a series of awkward situations and absurd characters, from Aunt Nosy potential boyfriend who cut off the meeting with the family to watch a football game, to the "beautiful and possible" that turns out to be a thief. But, between a smile and the other depicts a society in which - to use his own words - "just because some girls are the spouses. But they should not be looking for someone. Nor speak."
's so that, unlike the heroine of Helen Fielding or the four New Yorkers penned by Candace Bushnell - fun and challenging but certainly not revolutionary - Ghada has really broken through the wall of social convention. Becoming much more than a cultural phenomenon. In three years the blog has had more than 500 000 contacts, the post became a book and soon to be comic and even a television series. The rights were purchased in Germany and Great Britain, as well as in Italy, where the publisher Epoché was the first to give a voice Ghada outside the borders of his country.
The success has caught unprepared this pharmacist turned into a writer: "I needed to vent - he says - I lost my best friends, who were married. I did not have anyone to talk about my misadventures in search of a husband, and so I started writing on the Internet. I was expecting a few players and many insults, because I used a language molsto frank, I found many of the tricks of us girls and I said things that men do not want to hear. Instead I arrived thanks: the boys, who said they finally understood many things. And of the same age, who felt less alone. "Ghada
Post after post has put the spotlight on a social issue more and more evident in Egypt, paralyzed by the economic crisis and an unemployment rate above 9% (the official one, but independent experts talk about 20%) and with 20% of the population living below the poverty line, young people on the banks of the Nile marry later and later. And for a guy to stay at home is boring but honorable, a girl who passes the 27 without a ring on her finger automatically goes into the category of old maids. Those who "have to force something wrong, otherwise why not seize if anyone?", writes Ghada. For more than three million Egyptian women the age of 35 who are not married and those who approach this threshold, Abdel Aal has given a voice. That now resounds like an echo: after his success were born groups on Facebook dedicated to the "old maids", a radio and a blog titled "I want a divorce" and a magazine dedicated to those who have a failed marriage behind him.
hard to imagine that the avalanche was triggered by this young woman with brown hair covered by a veil. At first sight, the air is not shy pungent style of the blog and the book: "When I write are much more self-confident," she admits. This dichotomy has created the many problems: "Now - smiles - it's even harder to find a boyfriend. One of the few who has stepped forward trying Bride, not me: chiste me because I was so different from what he said. I realized that even he is right. "Despite all Ghada not stop looking," I want to have children in Egypt and there is no other way than to marriage. And who knows, maybe one day a man ni surprise. "Of course, the promise, the wedding will not be the end of the blog:" If anything happens maybe I will get to write about married life. I am sure that there would be stories to tell. "Not to mention the fact that sequels are on TV all the rage.
recounts the adventures to find a good match. And now comes a book
BRIDGET JONES THE ARAB WANTS A HUSBAND AND THE VEIL
The Bridget Jones of the Arab world is 30 years old, sweet face and dark eyes. She wears a large ring - no engagement, of course - and does not like being called Bridjet Jones. "In the beginning - he says - did not even know who he was. Nor I knew Sex and the City. For us, these films are not transmitted. "Yet it is difficult to escape the label: Ghada Abdel Aal is the young woman who was the first in Egypt, has dared to break the taboo of silence, raccontantdo publicly the desperate race of thousands of her peers and their families to grab a good husband. He did it in a blog (http://wanna-ba-bride.blogspot.com) about the adventures of her and her friends - all incorporated into the character of Bride, Bride in English - and which is a series of awkward situations and absurd characters, from Aunt Nosy potential boyfriend who cut off the meeting with the family to watch a football game, to the "beautiful and possible" that turns out to be a thief. But, between a smile and the other depicts a society in which - to use his own words - "just because some girls are the spouses. But they should not be looking for someone. Nor speak."
's so that, unlike the heroine of Helen Fielding or the four New Yorkers penned by Candace Bushnell - fun and challenging but certainly not revolutionary - Ghada has really broken through the wall of social convention. Becoming much more than a cultural phenomenon. In three years the blog has had more than 500 000 contacts, the post became a book and soon to be comic and even a television series. The rights were purchased in Germany and Great Britain, as well as in Italy, where the publisher Epoché was the first to give a voice Ghada outside the borders of his country.
The success has caught unprepared this pharmacist turned into a writer: "I needed to vent - he says - I lost my best friends, who were married. I did not have anyone to talk about my misadventures in search of a husband, and so I started writing on the Internet. I was expecting a few players and many insults, because I used a language molsto frank, I found many of the tricks of us girls and I said things that men do not want to hear. Instead I arrived thanks: the boys, who said they finally understood many things. And of the same age, who felt less alone. "Ghada
Post after post has put the spotlight on a social issue more and more evident in Egypt, paralyzed by the economic crisis and an unemployment rate above 9% (the official one, but independent experts talk about 20%) and with 20% of the population living below the poverty line, young people on the banks of the Nile marry later and later. And for a guy to stay at home is boring but honorable, a girl who passes the 27 without a ring on her finger automatically goes into the category of old maids. Those who "have to force something wrong, otherwise why not seize if anyone?", writes Ghada. For more than three million Egyptian women the age of 35 who are not married and those who approach this threshold, Abdel Aal has given a voice. That now resounds like an echo: after his success were born groups on Facebook dedicated to the "old maids", a radio and a blog titled "I want a divorce" and a magazine dedicated to those who have a failed marriage behind him.
hard to imagine that the avalanche was triggered by this young woman with brown hair covered by a veil. At first sight, the air is not shy pungent style of the blog and the book: "When I write are much more self-confident," she admits. This dichotomy has created the many problems: "Now - smiles - it's even harder to find a boyfriend. One of the few who has stepped forward trying Bride, not me: chiste me because I was so different from what he said. I realized that even he is right. "Despite all Ghada not stop looking," I want to have children in Egypt and there is no other way than to marriage. And who knows, maybe one day a man ni surprise. "Of course, the promise, the wedding will not be the end of the blog:" If anything happens maybe I will get to write about married life. I am sure that there would be stories to tell. "Not to mention the fact that sequels are on TV all the rage.
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