The Hidden Face of Scheherazade

During the Lebanese Civil War, Sadika Kebbi, the author of The Hidden Face of Scheherazade worked with the Red Cross, the Ministry of the Interior and her school’s community service club, helping others and alleviating as much pain as possible. When she married, she moved from Beirut to Tripoli, not far from Beb-al-Tebbeneh, the most underprivileged area in the Middle East. With a group of young women and men, Kebbi visited this beleaguered neighborhood to gather statistics in order to help the most in need. After gaining the people’s trust, the most devastating stories began to unfold. Kebbi would return home heartbroken, needing to stay alone, locked in her bedroom, crying her heart out. When she realized that her depression was affecting her family and other relationships, talking too much about the misery she had witnessed, it suddenly dawned on her that she must write the stories that she had heard. These have become the "stories from behind the veil" in The Hidden Face of Scheherazade. Sadika Kebbi believes that writing and collecting these short stories gives voice to the voiceless, in the hope that sharing common human pain and suffering brings people together with compassion, understanding, and belonging. Such human ordeals are universal among all people and telling the hardest stories, Kebbi believes, helps heal human suffering.