Tahar Ben Jelloun
Honorary president of FIFOG 2019 and 2014
Born in Fez in 1944, Tahar Ben Jelloun attended a bilingual Arab-French primary school, studied at the French High School in Tangier and then studied philosophy in Rabat, where he wrote his first poems – collected in hommes sous linceul de silence (Men under shroud of silence (1971). He then teaches philosophy in Morocco and settles in Paris to continue his studies in psychology. Starting in 1972, he writes numerous articles for Le Monde. In 1975, he obtains a PhD in social psychiatry. In 1985, he publishes the novel L’enfant de sable (The Sand Child) which makes him famous and in 1987 he wins the Prix Goncourt for La Nuit Sacrée. He speaks frequently in schools and universities.
Rita El Khayat
Présidente d’honneur du FIFOG 2018
Psychiatre, anthropologue et écrivaine marocaine, elle a été animatrice de télévision et artiste de cinéma. Elle fonde l’association Aïni Bennaï qui démocratise la culture. Auteur de nombreux articles et livres sur la condition féminine dans le monde arabo-islamique, elle est titrée de Chevalier de l’Ordre du Trône et d’Officier du Mérite national marocain en 2009, et nominée au Prix Nobel de la Paix en 2009.
Azouz BEGAG
Honorary president of FIFOG 2017
Of Algerian origin, Azouz Begag was born in France in the suburbs of Lyon. Mr BEGAG has a PhD in economics from Lyon 2 University and pursues several careers: novelist, sociologist and screenwriter. He is a Researcher at the CNRS (Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques) and the Maison des Sciences de l’Homme in Lyon since 1980. He is a specialist in urban socio-economics. His twenty books (both academic and fiction), he values the original culture of migrants and introduces positive identity models.
Ahlam MOSTEGHANEMI
Honorary president of FIFOG 2016
Ahlam Mosteghanemi is an Arabic language writer She is the eldest sibling in a family engaged in the struggle for Algerian national independence. Her father, Mohamed El Cherif, fought against the French colonial presence and two of her brothers lost their lives in a demonstration against the colonial power in the 1940s. The family had to flee to Tunisia, but Ahlam grew up in a politicized environment, in contact with the Algerian resistance. At the same time she is exposed to literature and culture, through her father, a literature professor. Upon their return to Algeria in 1962, she completed secondary school and started working for a radio station. There she hosted a program, Hamsat, which created her literary reputation. Her first collection of poems appeared in 1973 under the title Ala Marfa ‘Al Ayam (In the haven of days). Later she moves to Paris, marries a Lebanese journalist, and while founding a family, writes a thesis with the support of Jacques Berque. Her works are popular in the Arabic-speaking world, in particular in Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. Her book Dhakirat al-jasad (Memoirs of the Flesh) is ranked among the top hundred Arab novels. She has received the Naguib Mahfouz Prize and the Nour Prize for the best female work in Arabic.
M. ADONIS
Honorary president of FIFOG 2015
Born in Qassabine, a village in the mountains of northern Syria in 1930, Adonis, whose real name is Ali Ahmad Sa’id, was trained from a very early age in poetry by his father, a literate peasant. He published his first poems at the age of seventeen in a Latakia newspaper, already using the pen-name Adonis. Thereafter, he fully commits himself to a free and universal poetry, freed from any obstacle, from any linguistic, ideological or cultural limits. After studying philosophy at the University of Damascus, Adonis chose Beirut to found, in 1957, with his friend, the poet Yûsuf al-Khâl, the group Chi’r (Poetry) and a magazine of the same name. The influence of this journal on contemporary Arabic literature is considerable, as it introduces modern Western poetry forms and contents to traditional Arabic poetry. The collection Les Chants de Milhar le Damascene appears in 1961 and constitutes one of the founding works of modern Arabic poetry. The French translation, published in 1983, is a the beginning of Adonis worldwide recognition.
Mme Edmonde CHARLES-ROUX
Honorary president of FIFOG 2013
Editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine. She signes her first work, Oublier Palerme (Forget Palermo) in 1966, which wins the Prix Goncourt. Ms. Charles-Roux has a prestigious literary career, which allows her to become a member of the Académie Goncourt in 1983 and culminates in her becoming its president in 2002.
Mme Salma BACCAR
Honorary president of FIFOG 2012
Renowned Tunisian director, she becomes the first producer in Tunisia. In 2006, she wins the Prix du Cinema Award on the occasion of National Day of Culture. Finally, on October 23, 2011, she is elected a member of the Constituent Assembly.
Mme Laurence DEONNA
Honorary president of FIFOG 2011 and honorary committee member
Laurence Deonna, a great explorer, writer, reporter and photographer, is a specialist in the Middle East and Islam. In 1987, she received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education for the spirit of her work.
M. Jean ZIEGLER
Honorary President of FIFOG 2010 and honorary committee member
Jean Ziegler is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Geneva. United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Right to Food from 2000 to 2008, he was Vice Chairman of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee from 2009.
M. Malek CHEBEL
Honorary president of FIFOG 2008
Anthropologist, philosopher and Islamologist, Malek Chebel has published several
works aimed at understanding Arab-Muslim culture and the East-West relationship. In favor of an “Enlightened Islam”, he pleaded for a liberal Islam. Died on November 12, 2016.
M. Jean-Luc BIDEAU
Honorary president of FIFOG 2007 honorary committee member
Trained at the Conservatoire de Paris and member of the Comédie Française from 1991, Jean-Luc Bideau plays at Vilar and in the main Parisian theaters before becoming the favorite actor of the new Swiss cinema.
M. Andre GAZUT
Honorary president of FIFOG 2006 and honorary committee member
Reporter, photographer and cameraman, André Gazut was co-producer of the Swiss magazine Temps présent. Also, he realized in 2002 La Pacification en Algerie denouncing the practice of torture by the French army during the war in Algeria.
M. Rui NOGUEIRA
Member of the honorary committee
Author of The Cinema according to Melville – interviews with Rui Nogueira (1997), he directs the Center of Cinematographic Animation (CAC-Voltaire) in Geneva from 1977 to 2011. Passionate about cinema, he creates in 2009 the Rui Nogueira Foundation for the promotion the cinema.
JOUMANA HADDAD
Présidente d’honneur FIFOG 2021 et 2022
ASSEZ!
La voici. Elle est partout. (Super) exposée sur les affiches publicitaires, (hyper) étalée entre les pages des magazines, (maxi) alléchante à la télé, (archi) aguichante dans les films, (méga) sexualisée dans les clips musicaux, (extra) marchandée derrière les vitrines, (ultra) posée photographiée mâchée régurgitée retouchée exhibée…Irréelle.
La voici. La voyez-vous ? Dénudée, dissimulée, festoyée, critiquée, achetée, vendue, repliée, déployée, exploitée, délaissée, généralisée, stéréotypée, jouée de, jouet pour, épiloguée, post loguée, discutée, analysée, cuisses ouvertes, bouche fermée… Muette.
Regardez-là; regardez bien. Harassée sur les plateformes sociales, abusée dans les foyers, déplorée par les ONG, ostracisée par les systèmes, mal-représentée dans les médias, sous-payée par les chefs d’entreprise, diminuée par les religions, démonisée par les religieux, vaincue par les traditions, réduite par les clichés … Otage.
Ange déchu, héroïne du mal, Ève, côte, tentatrice, machine à sacrifices, monde arabe, pays occidentaux, à genoux ici, à genoux là-bas, pas assez partout… Mais assez!
Femme, femmes: il est (grand) temps de nous réinventer. À voix haute. Avec colère. Avec amour. Avec détermination. Prenantes au lieu de réclamantes.
Vivantes au lieu de survivantes. Libérées pour enfin être libres.
Oui, assez! Et cette formidable édition du FIFOG est une occasion de le dire: Saisissons-là