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K-State Today Student Edition

January 29, 2015

Staged reading of ethnodrama about women's issues in the Middle East offered Jan. 29-31

Submitted by Sally Bailey

"Dunia: An Ex-Muslim Woman's Story" is an ethnodrama based on interviews with real women who are ex-Muslims living in the West. The play will perform as a stage reading — actors with books in hand — at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29-31 in the Purple Masque Theatre, 103 East Stadium. A talk back will follow. Admission is free.

The play was created by Joanna Abillama, a master's student in drama therapy and a Fulbright scholar. It is being directed by Sally Bailey, professor of theatre.

"Working on this play has given rise to many moral dilemmas, the foremost being How do you denounce the abuse some women face in Muslim majority countries without perpetuating harmful stereotypes about the Muslim community in general?" Abillama says. "Recent events have only cemented the need to address this question. The conclusion I came to was that I would endeavor to present the most authentic portrayal I could of the lives of my interviewees and friends back in Lebanon. No play can represent everyone but I hope you will leave feeling at least like you know Dunia and her friends."

Muslim women are often depicted in simplistic ways. Either they totally accept the social norms and moral codes they live under, glossing over the struggles of women who experience abuse, or they are mere victims in need of "Western liberation." Both these narratives fail to do justice to the diversity and complexity of Muslim women's lives. Abillama hopes that this play will reflect some of that diversity and complexity.