Join RHEA for an evening with scholar Dr. Zuleika Sheik and Belgian-Palestinian writer Fatena Al Ghorra, exploring the intersections of decolonial feminism and the Palestinian resistance.
The central question of the evening is: Why is a decolonial and intersectional feminist perspective essential to understand the Palestinian struggle? Specifically, through poetry and dialogue, the speakers will examine how oppression is documented and how alternative forms of knowledge production—such as poetry and journalism—resist erasure and challenge dominant narratives.
About the speakers
Dr. Zuleika Bibi Sheik will explore Palestine through a decolonial feminist lens, addressing issues like pinkwashing and environmental justice.
She is a South African poet and scholar of South Indian indentured descent. She is currently Assistant Professor of Decolonial Approaches, Gender and Black Studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. Her particular interest is in ‘decolonizing methodologies’, considering the ‘how’ of doing research that is non-extractive, life-affirming and aimed towards social justice and collective liberation. Sheik was awarded her PhD cum laude, for her thesis, Liminagraphy: Lessons in Life-affirming Research Practices for Collective Liberation.
Her academic series of essays on Decolonizing the Self has featured in the journal Education as Change and Imbiza Journal for African Writing. Her latest poem ‘Senzenina, what have we done?’ is featured on ‘Planting the seeds of Collective Liberation’ (2024) the inaugural issue of OneStateCollective that brings together creatives and activists united for a Free Palestine.
Fatena Al-Ghorra will reflect on independent journalism, writing, and poetry as tools for preserving Palestinian voices and histories.
She is a Palestinian writer who has published five poetry collections, three of which have been translated into Spanish, Italian and Dutch. She works as a freelance journalist, translator and poet, having worked as a journalist for Palestinian television and radio, presenting cultural programmes, and then as a literary correspondent for Al Jazeera and then “diffa thalitha”. She is a translator for "Baraat" magazine from Duch to Arabic. She also has a poetry project entitled: “Faten’s Poetry Salon” in Belgium and the Netherlands, through which she translates Dutch poetry into Arabic.
She has participated in international festivals and poetry projects around the world, and in 2017 she participated in the International Writing Residency at the University of Iowa. Her book "Exedus to Gaza" was recently published in Dutch in Belguim and the Nederlands, and it tells her experience in Gaza during the war of extermination on the city. The book will be published in Arabic under the title "Displaced Blood in the Corridor" by Mediterranean Publications in Italy. The poet has received several awards, the most important of which is the "Fiumicino City Poetry Award" in Rome, Italy, in the category of the best poetry book translated from Arabic to Italian. It is a selection of poems from her two most recent books, "Elay", published in Spanish and Arabic, and "Treasons of the Lord". Her poems have been translated into many languages, including Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Turkish, Persian, English and French.
By bringing together academic and lived perspectives, the evening fosters reflection on the role of storytelling, feminist resistance, and the responsibilities of academia in shaping narratives of oppression and resilience.
