Joumana Haddad is a Lebaneseauthor, public speaker, journalist and women's rights activist. She has been selected as one of the world’s 100 most powerful Arab women for four years in a row by Arabian Business Magazine, for her cultural and social activism. She is founder of Jasad, a quarterly Arabic-language magazine specialized in the arts and literature of the body. Haddad launched a new TV show in November 2018 on Alhurra highlighting the topics of free expression and critical thinking.
Career
She's been the cultural editor of An-Nahar newspaper, where she worked between 1997 and 2017. Joumana Haddad is on the Board of Advisors of MARCH Lebanon. In 2009, she co-wrote and acted in a movie by Lebanese filmmaker Jocelyne Saab. In October 2009, she has been chosen as one of the 39 most interesting Arab writers under 39. In November 2009, she won the International Prize North South for poetry, of the Pescarabruzzo Foundation in Italy. The winner of the novel prize was Austrian writer Peter Handke. In February 2010, she won the Blue Metropolis Al Majidi Ibn Dhaher Arab Literary Prize In August 2010, she received the Rodolfo Gentili Prize in Porto Recanati, Italy. In November 2012, she received the Cutuli Prize for journalism in Catania, Italy. In July 2013, she was appointed honorary ambassador for culture and human rights for the city of Naples in the Mediterranean by the mayor of Naples Luigi de Magistris. In February 2014, she was awarded the "Career Poetry Prize" by the Archicultura Foundation in Acquiterme, Italy. In December 2018, Haddad won the Social Economic Award for the category of Social Media Influencer. Haddad's magazine is the feature of a 2013 film by Amanda Homsi-Ottosson, Jasad & The Queen of Contradictions, a Women Make Movies release. She ran for the Lebanese parliamentary elections on May 6, 2018. After she was announced a winner on the night of the elections by local TV news channels , the authorities declared that she had actually lost on the morning of the following day, so there was a big demonstration in front of the Ministry of Interior on the afternoon of May 7 to protest the results and ask for a recount. Haddad went on to submit an appeal to the Constitutional Council on June 7 with the prominent lawyer Melhem Khalaf, but her case was supported by only three out of the ten members of the Council, so her appeal for a recount was revoked.
Translations into other languages
Damit ich abreisen kann, 2005, Lisan Verlag, Basel, Switzerland.
Cuando me hice fruta, 2006, Monte Ávila Editores, Caracas, Venezuela.
El retorno de Lilith, 2007, Editorial Praxis, Mexico, Mexico/ 2010, Diputacion Provincial de Malaga, Mar Remoto, Spain.
Le retour de Lilith, 2007, Editions L’Inventaire, Paris, France/ 2011, Editions Actes Sud, Paris, France.
Liliths Wiederkehr, 2008, Verlag Hans Schiler, Berlin, Germany.
Adrenalina, 2009, "Edizioni del Leone", Venice, Italy.
Il ritorno di Lilith, 2010, "Edizioni l'Asino d'Oro", Rome, Italy.
Lilits återkomst, 2010, Bokförlaget Tranan, Stockholm, Sweden.
Espejos de las fugaces, 2010, "Vaso Roto ediciones", Mexico.
Miroirs des passantes dans le songe, 2010, « Al Dante », Paris, France.
Las siete vidas de Luca, Literatura infantil, 2011, Vaso Roto, México, México.
Los amantes deberían llevar solo mocasines, Literatura erótica, 2011, Vaso Roto'', México, México.
Am ucis-o pe Seherezada, Philobia, 2012, Bucharest, Romania
Personal life
Joumana was born into a conservative Christian family. Her mother is of Armenian extraction from her own mother's side, and Syriac Catholic from her father's side. She has married twice, and has two children. She lives in Beirut. She is an atheist and a critic of organised religion..
Opinions
Joumana Haddad is a feminist. She is an activist for equality, human rights, individual freedoms and secularism.
