Three Cards by Manal El Sherbini (Photo by Egypt Today staff)
At the dawn of a fast-developing world, the human race continues to not only prosper in significant impacting innovative ideas but also creates internal and external man-made conflicts. The drama/poetic novel “Salath Warakat” (Three Cards) successfully portrays humanity in Arab nations through the ambitious recent book written by poet/literary critic Manal El Sherbini.
Sherbini managed to produce a collective literary work depicting psychological intakes, struggles of nations with land and religion, women’s rights, relationships, parenthood and Arab identities emerging in a cosmopolitan society. Sherbini spoke with Egypt Today about her personal contact with cosmopolitan societies that encouraged her to write the novel, which also includes sketches she drew to portray actual human struggles. She further revealed details about plans to turn the novel into a film directed by the famous filmmaker Ali Badrakhan.
Could you tell us briefly about your novel?
The main goal behind the novel is to highlight the cruel world we’re living in on all levels, including deception and other behaviors that push you to question the moral conduct of the people closest to you and strangers that cross your life.
Immoral human behaviors are highlighted strongly in the novel through several characters; for example the grandmother that depicts the mostly fake world we live in. This fakeness has spread in religious teachings, distorting the sanctity of religion and god through these wrong teachings and sayings. I used informal language in some chapters in the novel to help support this fact.
What chapter in the novel you consider most special to you?
The entire novel is inspired by real life situations and experiences that I had experiences, and of people I met from different walks of life. The chapter that is very close to my heart however is the scene where the lady is on a swing and the entire surrounding rotates around her.
This scene of the novel depicts the actual inner struggles that humans experience. A person comes to a certain point of self-doubt and tends to look back at their lives, accomplishment and pain while questioning the truth and their reality. They then enter into a cycle of denial where they refuse to confront their reality, pain and fears, which is reflected in the dizziness that happens after swinging. This specific chapter has brought me to tears because at this turning point one doesn’t reach any conclusion but descending further into nothingness.
The swing is a symbol of desired freedom from inner human conflicts while the dizziness symbolizes the constant escape from the unpleasant reality. You fly and fall in crazy swaying where the mind practices a real experience of the upside down inner pain.
Why did you choose to name the novel Three Cards? What do those three cards resemble?
The title portrays several things including women’s rights, land, and ethical manners. The cards also have sub-meanings in depicting how various generations, starting from grandparents and ongoing to grandchildren, deal with these aspects The three cards also portray the three children in the story because each child has their own story.
You grew up with different women from different countries, tell us a bit about this experience and how are those women, who are also depicted in your book, different now?
When I first entered the cosmopolitan society where these women lived, it was an enclosed community, innocent, good-hearted, and accompanied with tragedies mainly revolving around land and great psychological struggles that are displayed from time to time. For example a Palestinian woman called Om Gehad was treating her children harshly by limiting their freedom when they left the house. This concept was submerged in her mind due to the constant arrests she grew up seeing around her at the time when Israel occupied Palestine and was constantly launching random campaigns of arrests.
Women of the society I lived in have slightly changed since then. They were granted less freedom to education and travelling however that changed as they grew up pursuing higher educational degrees. I am still in touch with some of those women who still have struggles ranging between different psychological conflicts resonating from violence and pain due to the loss of land and family.
Three Cards by Manal El Sherbini (Photo by Egypt Today staff)
Sherbini uses poetry and informal language throughout the book to be able to fully capture the actual reality of human struggles as she story tells a sequence of short story events without depending on traditional fictional literary intakes.
You were very passionate in discussing the statuses of three countries: Jordan, Egypt, and Palestine through these women in the book, what did they all have in common back then and now?
The common aspects are that the community in every nation tends to change their behaviors towards their countries as a result or in parallel to the change in the country’s policies. All three countries were underdeveloped in the past. I went to Jordan during the 1980’s and I felt like it was the 1960’s due to the enclosed societies, but this changed over time.
Based on your experience, what were the common sentimental behaviors found among all three nationalities?
We are all struggling communities and divided into many factions; however human struggles are always the same in all nations of the world in my opinion.
If you would describe all three countries in one word for each, words that are mentioned in your book, what would they be?
Palestine is Ahlam, Egypt is Reem, and Jordan is Gamila
Tell me more about the drawings in the Book?
My drawings are symbols to many things such as authoritarian aspects that continue to haunt humans. The drawings also symbolize forgotten martyrs and graveyards. The Christian cross found in some of the drawings symbolizes injustice, discrimination, and suffering.
I drew these drawings without a plan it was as if my soul was drawing and impersonated the inner struggles that I couldn’t express through words.
Throughout the novel you portrayed the inner struggles of the human race, how do you think these struggles changed over the years and what results came out of them?
The world has changed massively in regards to humanity. I think we lost control on all levels and failed to maintain humanity among us.
Ahlam is the name of a Palestinian character you are very passionate about and you have mentioned her in several occasions in the novel, what does Ahlam resemble to you?
Ahlam resembles the lost nation. It also resembles anyone we tend to lose due to being ignorant of their true worth, and anyone who we reject because they’re different from us.
What are the current updates in famous film director Ali Badrakhan’s plans to turn Three Cards into a film?
Badrakhan and film director Ahmed Deiaa El Din have showed great interest in turning the novel into a drama film when we met earlier to discuss potential plans. I am supposed to attend another meeting with them in the upcoming period at the High Cinema Institute to discuss further plans surrounding film production including logistics, potential scenarists and finances.
Badrakhan has a vision of producing a drama film portraying the characteristics of the novel and factions of cultural and societal stances as well as inner humanitarian conflicts. He believes there is potential in the novel and has even compared it to an international cinematic work of art when he first read it.
With all the psychological intakes discussed in the book, you focused on parenthood which was portrayed through the three children in the novel, in your opinion how do you think parental behavior should change in order to produce promising generations?
Parents of today should treat their children as adults regardless of their age. We should always introduce new ideas into our children’s minds and challenge them because their brains are only operating around the questions they ask based on their surroundings, therefore we should seek to expand their horizons but also respect their choices.
What are your upcoming projects? Are there any novels that will come out in the future?
I am currently translating Three Cards into English and French, writing a new novel called “Maraya Younis” (Younis’ Struggles) which will be a very short story where each page of the book will have one line. Another novel I am working on is ‘Titos’ a novel based on societal research investigating human behaviors of our community.
Book Author Manal El Sherbini (Photo courtesy of Manal El Sherbini)
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