In the last weeks, the International Writing Program has been following Ghada Abdel Aal (IWP 2010), the Egyptian blogger/writer (and pharmacist) from the industrial city of Mahalla, whose intensely political atmosphere couldn’t be more different than that of Iowa City.

This past October Ghada was busy promoting her just-out book I Want to Get Married (U Texas Press) based on her very popular blog devoted to what she called ’the husband problem’. And only just a few weeks ago she happily forwarded news of her brand new Golden Pyramid for Best Comedy TV Script, awarded by the Arabic Media Association.

As of January 25th, though, Ghada’s news was only arriving as Facebook posts, in Arabic. With her permission, the IWP has translated a few of her posts, even though, to paraphrase her, her updates ’don’t represent the majority position’. Her quotes are now a snapshot of this winter's historical moments in Egypt. Read her translated posts on the IWP blog, here.