A Conversation with Amal Ghandour, Author of This Arab Life: A Generation’s Journey Into Silence

Amal Ghandour is a Lebanese-Jordanian author and blogger (Thinking Fits), with a career that spans more than three decades in the fields of research, communication and community development. Her book, About This Man Called Ali (2009), was named the first biography of a modern Arab artist by the renowned Historian, Philip Mansel. Amal's latest book, This Arab Life: A Generation’s Journey Into Silence (2022), is her quest for clarity during difficult, unpredictable moments in the Arab world. She describes it “as a memoir that is not of an individual but of the generation that came of political age in the 1980s in the Levant,” and admits that her book straddles genres to include history and cultural/political commentary. This Arab Life, she adds, “is an intimate rendition of the times that shaped us; the way we internalized our parents’ myriad dejections and disappointments; the pragmatism and silence that defined us; and the dispiriting inheritance we inexorably bequeathed our own children.” Amal had to do some "excavation" during the writing of this book, to explore and deal with the existential angst that arose in her. Amal laments her generation's failure to have a say in the geographies and social structures that shape their destinies and explains what she believes to have contributed to this situation, and what could have been done to avoid it. "It is very frightening to excavate, but the process is very rewarding," Amal reflects. Amal also discusses her take on the two-state solution that has dominated the discourse about Palestine and Israel, which she notes is "Israeli occupancy of a people who do not want to be occupied." As a person who lives in an area experiencing serious hardship, she fiercely resists optimism where it is not justified. In 2009, Amal became Senior Advisor to Ruwwad al Tanmeya, a regional community development initiative. She sits on the Boards of Directors of Ruwwad in Lebanon and Palestine, on the Board of Trustees of International College (IC), and on the Board of Directors of Synaps. She also served as Special Adviser to Columbia University’s Global Centers, Middle East (2014-2017), and on the Board of Directors of The Arab Human Rights Fund (2011-2014). Amal holds an MS in International Policy from Stanford University and a BSFS from Georgetown University. Among her works: Aeon, The Daily Beast, Washington Independent Review of Books, Midanmasr, Canvas. Website - https://amalghandour.com/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/amalghandour/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/ghandour_ag Goodreads - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61908393-this-arab-life Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/This-Arab-Life-Generations-Journey-ebook/dp/B0B6DGWW5Q