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Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi (Arabic: كريم الراوي) is a writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. He has taught at universities in the UK, Egypt, US and Canada. He was an International Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa and taught creative writing at the university's International Writing Program.
While in the UK, he was active in the anti-racist movement, writing for publications including those of the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and, in 1984, was a speaker at the Greater London Council's anti-racism conference. He is a long-time peace activist and proponent of a Palestinian state. He was a keynote speaker, in 1982, at the founding conference of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London. In 2003, he testified before the US Congress arguing for strengthening civil society institutions and supporting independent media in the Middle East and North Africa. He was also a delegate to Madrid+15 conference in 2007 to develop a framework for a two-state solution, laying the groundwork for the Annapolis Conference between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Egypt he was deputy secretary general and foreign press spokesperson for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and president of Egyptian Pen (the local branch of the international writer's organization) from 1992 to 1994 replacing Mursi Saad El-Din. He was followed in the position by novelist Gamal El-Ghitani.
He was in Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011–2013. After the return of military rule, Alrawi was among 190 Egyptian human rights and civil society activists charged by Egyptian State Security under case 173–2011. The charges pertained to his training journalists in media ethics and use of the internet, purportedly a contributory factor to the Arab Spring 2011 uprising. On December 20, 2018, an Egyptian court dismissed the charges. A decision confirmed by the court of appeal on December 4, 2020. On March 20, 2024, an investigative judge declared the case closed.
Alrawi is a graduate of University College London, the University of Manchester[citation needed] and the University of British Columbia School of Creative Writinf.
In the UK, he was Literary Manager of the Theatre Royal Stratford East and later Resident Writer at the Royal Court Theatre in Central London. He served on the Arts Council of Great Britain's Drama Panel and the Greater London Arts Council. On returning to Egypt he taught in the theatre department of the American University in Cairo. In Egypt his plays were banned by the state censor. He was later arrested and detained for interrogation by Egyptian State Security for his work with the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). In 1993, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya issued a fatwa against him, citing his defence of the assassinated writer Farag Foda and stating that "the defence of an apostate is proof of apostasy". The fatwa was subsequently withdrawn after the intervention of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
He went to the United States as a Fulbright International Scholar where he had residencies at a number of theatres including Meadow Brook Theatre (MBT) in Michigan, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, and LaMama, New York. He has written and edited several international publications and was Editor in Chief of ARABICA magazine, the leading nationally distributed Arab-American publication with an independently certified readership of over 100,000 readers. He supervised EU, US and Canadian government funded media training programs in North Africa and South Asia. He was Executive Director of the US-Arab Economic Forum and a member of the Canadian delegation led by Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference on Good Governance in the Arab World, as well as a member of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR, 1999–2005) and Communications Advisor and Manager of External Affairs for the Middle East and North Africa for the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Alrawi's fiction, plays and productions have received several awards including:
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Karim Alrawi
Karim Alrawi (Arabic: كريم الراوي) is a writer born in Alexandria, Egypt. He has taught at universities in the UK, Egypt, US and Canada. He was an International Writing Fellow at the University of Iowa and taught creative writing at the university's International Writing Program.
While in the UK, he was active in the anti-racist movement, writing for publications including those of the Campaign Against Racism and Fascism and, in 1984, was a speaker at the Greater London Council's anti-racism conference. He is a long-time peace activist and proponent of a Palestinian state. He was a keynote speaker, in 1982, at the founding conference of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in London. In 2003, he testified before the US Congress arguing for strengthening civil society institutions and supporting independent media in the Middle East and North Africa. He was also a delegate to Madrid+15 conference in 2007 to develop a framework for a two-state solution, laying the groundwork for the Annapolis Conference between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In Egypt he was deputy secretary general and foreign press spokesperson for the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights and president of Egyptian Pen (the local branch of the international writer's organization) from 1992 to 1994 replacing Mursi Saad El-Din. He was followed in the position by novelist Gamal El-Ghitani.
He was in Egypt during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011–2013. After the return of military rule, Alrawi was among 190 Egyptian human rights and civil society activists charged by Egyptian State Security under case 173–2011. The charges pertained to his training journalists in media ethics and use of the internet, purportedly a contributory factor to the Arab Spring 2011 uprising. On December 20, 2018, an Egyptian court dismissed the charges. A decision confirmed by the court of appeal on December 4, 2020. On March 20, 2024, an investigative judge declared the case closed.
Alrawi is a graduate of University College London, the University of Manchester[citation needed] and the University of British Columbia School of Creative Writinf.
In the UK, he was Literary Manager of the Theatre Royal Stratford East and later Resident Writer at the Royal Court Theatre in Central London. He served on the Arts Council of Great Britain's Drama Panel and the Greater London Arts Council. On returning to Egypt he taught in the theatre department of the American University in Cairo. In Egypt his plays were banned by the state censor. He was later arrested and detained for interrogation by Egyptian State Security for his work with the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights (EOHR). In 1993, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya issued a fatwa against him, citing his defence of the assassinated writer Farag Foda and stating that "the defence of an apostate is proof of apostasy". The fatwa was subsequently withdrawn after the intervention of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights.
He went to the United States as a Fulbright International Scholar where he had residencies at a number of theatres including Meadow Brook Theatre (MBT) in Michigan, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, and LaMama, New York. He has written and edited several international publications and was Editor in Chief of ARABICA magazine, the leading nationally distributed Arab-American publication with an independently certified readership of over 100,000 readers. He supervised EU, US and Canadian government funded media training programs in North Africa and South Asia. He was Executive Director of the US-Arab Economic Forum and a member of the Canadian delegation led by Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) conference on Good Governance in the Arab World, as well as a member of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)'s Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR, 1999–2005) and Communications Advisor and Manager of External Affairs for the Middle East and North Africa for the World Bank in Washington, DC.
Alrawi's fiction, plays and productions have received several awards including: