Fawzia Al-Ashmawi


Fawzia Abd Al-Minem Al-Ashmawi is an Egyptian academic, writer and translator. She works as a Professor of Arabic Literature and Islamic Civilisation in the University of Geneva. She had won the Golden Award in Sciences and Arts from Egypt.
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Early life

Al-Ashmawi was born in October in the 1940s in Alexandria. Her mother was Egyptian with Syrian roots, and her father was Alexandrian from Al-Siyala neighbourhood in Ras Al-Teen district. She has two sisters and two brothers. She went to a convent school during primary school, and she went to Alexandria University where she studied in the Department of French Language in the College of Arts, from which she graduated in 1965. Abd Al-Aziz Abu Zaid was a colleague of hers, who proposed to her after she graduated, then they got married afterwards.
In the summer of 1972, when she was in her thirties, Al-Ashmawi left Egypt for the first time in her life and headed to Switzerland. Her husband had already left six months earlier before she and her two children followed. Al-Ashmawi continued her studies in social sciences there until she graduated from the College of Arts at University of Geneva in June 1972. Continuing her studies, she received her MA in 1974, and her PhD in 1983 in Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Her MA thesis was about Prophet Mohammed’s personality in French Literature, while her PhD dissertation was Woman and Modern Egypt in the Work of Naguib Mahfuz''.''
Al-Ashmawi worked as a translator and counsellor in some bodies of the United Nations in Switzerland, and for ISESCO and UNESCO. She also worked as a cultural counsellor in the Embassy of Saudi Arabia, then for that of the United Arab Emirates in Geneva. She got promoted from the position of an assistant professor to become the Head of the Arabic Language and Islamic Studies Department in University of Geneva.

Positions

  • Head of the Arabic Language and Islamic Studies Department in University of Geneva
  • Counsellor in the United Nations in Switzerland
  • Cultural counsellor for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Geneva
  • Cultural counsellor for the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Geneva
  • President of the European Muslim Women Forum
  • Secretary General of the Swiss-Egyptian Cultural Association
  • Senior Researcher for ISESCO in Rabat, Morocco, 2005; project: The Image of Islam in European Textbooks
  • Senior Researcher for UNESCO in Paris 2007; project: The Image of the Other in History Textbooks | 2006; project: ''The Evolution of Muslim Women''

Works

She has authored publications in three languages:

Arabic

Waves of Life between the Alexandrian Sea and Lake Geneva, Dar el-ain Publications, Cairo, 2012Muslim Women in the Occident ''Media, Akhbar al-youm, Cairo, 2008Islamic Values and Humanitarian Values'', Doha Conference, Qatar, 2007
  • Women in Naguîb Mahfuz Novels, General Egyptian Organisation of book & Superior Council of Culture, Cairo, 2003
  • The Seven Monks of Alexandria, Sharqiyyat, Cairo, 1998
  • Al-Hub Al-Awal wa Al-Suhba,, Superior Council of Culture, Cairo, 1998
  • Alexandrie 60, Madbouly, Cairo, 1997
  • Stranger in my Country, Madbouly, Cairo, 1995
  • Al-Hub,, General Organisation of Culture, Cairo, 1995
  • Islam and Globalisation, High Council of Islamic Affairs, Cairo, 1999
  • The Status of Women in Islam, Conference on Uprooted Muslim Women in Islam, Sharjah, U.A.E., 1994

English

Learning about the Other, Guidebook for History Textbooks, Joint Project of UNESCO and Arab League, Cairo, 2009The Image of The Other in History Textbooks: Jews and Christians in Islamic Books, Istanbul, 2006The Arabic Language as an Official Language of The United Nations, Nitobe Symposium, Berlin, 1999Human Rights in Islam, Panorama, Bern, 1999Muslim Voices in Switzerland, TSER Project, Brussels, 1999Comparative Study of Textbooks: The Image of the Other in Seven Mediterranean Countries, UNESCO Publications, Newsletter No 5, 1996

French

Mariage et Divorce dans l’Egypte Ancienne, Geuthner, Paris, 2009Mohammad, Prophète de Dieu,, WICS Publications, Tripoli, 2005L’Islam dans les manuels scolaires en Europe, WICS Publications, Tripoli, 2003La Condition des Musulmans en Suisse, CERA, Geneva, 2001Etude Comparative des manuels scolaires des pays méditerranéens, UNESCO, Paris, 1996L’Authenticité dans l’oeuvre romanesque de Naguib Mahfouz, Revue of Arts & Translation, No 1, Kaslik, Liban, 1995La tragédie de Voltaire: Mahomet ou le Fanatisme, in Campus, Geneva, 1994Miramar, Denoël, Paris, 1990La Femme et l’Egypte Moderne dans l’oeuvre de Naguib Mahfouz, Labor & Fides, Geneva, 1985

Awards

  • Golden Award in Sciences and Arts from Egypt