Guest of the ilb 2003
Notaila Ibrahim Rashed, known as Mama Lobna, was born
in 1934 in Cairo, Egypt, and is known as the pioneer of Egyptian
children’s literature. She has not only written numerous
children’s books and books for young adults, short stories and
contributions for diverse children’s magazines, radio and television
shows for children and young people in the whole Arabic speaking
region, but has also campaigned ambitiously for, and has had a profound
influence on, the promotion of Egyptian children’s and young people’s
literature. From its first publication in 1956 until 2002 she
worked for the renowned Arabic children’s magazine 'Samir'. In
1965 she founded the children’s book section of the publishing house
Darel-Hilal in Cairo, where she worked as a publisher for five
years. She is a member of the High Committee of the Cairo
International Festival for Children’s Film, and of the Child and Young
People Committee of the Alexandria Library. Notaila Rashed began
writing for children and young people while she was a student at Cairo
University. Her first short stories were broadcast on the radio
in 1953. A number of broadcastings of her children’s and young
people’s programmes for radio and television followed. One of her
most famous books is 'The Diary of Yasser Family', which was published
in 1979 in two parts. It includes the story 'The Doll' which was
used as the model for the first, and to date the only, children’s film
produced by the Egyptian National Council of Culture. In 1979 she
also published 'Abou Keer and Abou Seer', a modern adaptation of the
story from 'A Thousand and One Nights' about a good neighbour and an
evil neighbour. In her work, Rashed tries to combine the
literary-cultural traditions of ancient and modern Egypt. She
wants her texts to provide children all around the world with an
authentic portrayal of life in contemporary Egypt: "The world knew
Pharaonic Egypt; and Egypt in the early Arab and Islamic epochs; but
20th century Egypt is not familiarly known to the same extent."
Besides her work as an author, Rashed has also translated children’s
classics into Arabic, including Andersen’s 'The Emperor’s New Clothes',
Wilde’s 'The Happy Prince' and Swell’s 'Black Beauty'. She takes
part in international congresses on children’s and young people’s
literature, as well as in congresses on children’s film, TV and
radio. Her socioliterary commitment has been highly
acclaimed. In 1978 she was awarded the State Award for Children’s
Literature. In 1995 she received the State Award for Children’s
Journalism and in 2002 the Medal of the Council of the Ministry of
Culture. The author has three children and four grandsons and
lives in Cairo.
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