That’s me. A Yassini Girl
Dear readers,
It is not with any fanfare that I announce my upcoming novel, Yassini Girls because of the devastating ongoing genocide in Gaza; a genocide that follows the systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that has occurred for decades. Instead, I introduce to you Yassini Girls my most personal novel yet; a semi-autobiographical version of my family’s story. Of my Tata’s story.
I wrote this novel following my appearance on the BBC documentary film, The Holy Land and Us; Our Untold Stories. It was during the filming that I discovered my Tata’s true history and one that resonates with my present and our future.
After appearing on The Today Show to discuss my novel, The Land Beneath the Light; a Palestinian reimagining of Jane Eyre, I mentioned to the presenter, Ayesha Tariq that I had just discovered that my Tata was not from Ariyha, Jericho as I had originally thought. She was in fact from Deir Yassin.
The show was aired live and unbeknownst to me at the time, the BBC Director was watching and subsequently got in touch asking me if I would like to discover my Tata’s history as part of a wider film based on events around 1948. And so the journey continued.
Many of my family’s stories were omitted from the BBC documentary; the historian I met and the research team did a watertight job of unearthing what happened based on the truth. This was something that had never happened before on mainstream TV- the Nakba (as many of us already knew) was undeniably true, and now it was being aired on mainstream British TV.
It is now more crucial than ever that Palestinian stories are read and understood. Islamophobia is at its highest point ever and we are seeing this because of decades of dehumanization of Muslim identity resulting in a horrific genocide the world is watching unfold to our Palestinian brother’s and sisters in Gaza. This has occurred through mainstream media, books, films, series, documentaries; everything and anything that is aired that displays negative, incorrect stereotypes of Muslim people; and there is plenty of them. We are inundated. This has not happened in a vacuum; this is part of a systematic erasure of the value of Muslim lives that I have been writing about for the past ten years.
Like millions of others, I am calling for change. For media and narratives to reflect the truth.
We cannot understand a culture or a people without understanding their deep traditions, their links to the land, and their history. Even those who have the blessing of visiting Palestine rarely get to see the lives lived inside the houses of Palestinian families.
My books are written to help the world to see that…Yassini Girls offers the most intimate portrayal yet.
The media reviews on BBC Documentary and several articles were published after its release. Here are links to a few:
BBC broke the Nakba taboo – but still cheated Palestinians
To date, I have not answered any questions about this as I spent time unpacking exactly how I felt about it all.
I explore this all in my upcoming novel, Yassini Girls published this Summer 2024.
Get involved
You can get involved by selecting Yassini Girls for book groups, schools and colleges and to request copies for book stores and stockists to have available on its release. You can share this post on your social media.
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This is a conversation the world needs to hear.
For any press or media enquiries, or a copy of the Press Release , please email me at hello@shereenmalherbe.com
Shereen Malherbe 