By Rana Khaled
To urge Egyptian women to protect their psychical, psychological rights and overcome their fears, life difficulties, writer Hadeer Magdy chose to dedicate her literary works to discuss the sufferings and problems of women.
Magdy was born in Alexandria in 1985 and studied social service at Alexandria University. In 2013, she released her first electronic book “Messages To Whom It May Concern” that included her daily thoughts about love, breakup and pain. At the same year, she published her first novel “Moroor El-Leaam” that featured true stories by girls on their sufferings. After less than two years, she published her last novel “Special Case” that appealed to large numbers of Egyptian and Arabic readers.
In her interview with Daily News Egypt, Magdy spoke of her dad’s support, the messages she tries to convey through her writings as well as her future projects.
(Handout photo)
How and when did you begin writing? And does it have anything to do with your childhood?
I began writing when I was a little child because my father used to support and encourage me by reading my articles and stories and praising them. When he discovered I had a remarkable talent, he encouraged me to use his library to read books and novels by the biggest Egyptian and Arab novelists and writers of that time, believing that it’s the first step on the thousand mile journey.
How did the idea of documenting your thoughts in “Messages To Whom It May Concern” develop? And why did you choose this title in particular?
“Messages To Whom It May Concern” was just a collection of my different thoughts and visions about past, present and future and I gathered them from novels I previously wrote. I chose this title because I believe that every thought I write must covey a direct message for my reader. If he really cares about his life partner, he must read those messages with his mind and heart before his tongue and eyes.
What were your main objectives behind publishing these messages in a book?
Actually, “Messages To Whom It May Concern” wasn’t published as a printed book, however, the thoughts were published online accompanied by photos. This allowed me to reach my readers directly, listen to their opinions and discuss the main points in the book with them freely.
As a novice writer, did you find any difficulties when you decided to publish your first book?
Of course I encountered a lot of hardships and difficulties especially at the beginning when I was forced into a long and fierce battle to keep my copyrights with the help of the Egyptian Publishers Association which supported me. I think this is one of the biggest problems that can face a novice writer at the beginning of his/her career.
(Handout photo)
In your first novel, “Moror El-Leaam”, you presented a new genre of romantic stories where you took readers into a realistic journey with your fictional characters, what are the main messages you wanted to convey through the novel?
This novel is very special to me as it expresses the lives of dozens of girls who have everything in common except their names and the various ways they broke up with their husbands and lovers. I provided a realistic novel about women who suffer from the pain of love. The main message I wanted to convey to men through this novel was how to be gentle with ladies and how to respect their weakness as Prophet Mohammed taught us. I wanted to send a different message to girls whose hearts destroy their lives. You have to be stronger, you have to control your feelings and never let your heart force you to continue in a harmful relationship.
In your second novel “Hala Khasa” or “Special Case” you shed light on the difficulties that face mentally-deficient children and how their special cases affect their parents and surrounding family members. How did you prepare for such novel and what did you discover about those people’s lives?
In addition to shedding light on the problems facing mentally-deficient children as you previously mentioned, the novel also tackles many other important issues including the disobedience of parents. It pays special attention to the idea of sacrificing for the sake of one’s morals and standards. The novel also tackles the issue of rape committed by husbands against their wives and calls on defending women’s psychical and psychological rights.
Do you have any future plans or projects?
I’m working on my third novel right now and it will be published soon by Al-Dar Al-Masriah Al-Lubnania but I won’t give any more details for now.
