Which is to the east of to great to great leadership in recent days that refuted that its also not clear exactly how close the federal forces are to the city. They said that they surrounded it. They were 50 kilometers away. Other reports said that there was fighting about 70 kilometers to the northwest on wednesday. Others saying that its much closer to a court in turkey has been given life sentences to some of the those accused of plotting to overthrow the president won 4 years ago. Its one of the biggest cases related to the failed coup. Nearly 80000 people have been arrested since 2016. Argentina has begun 3 days of National Mourning after the death of one of the greatest Football Players of all time. Diego maradona, people have been lying not me up to the president ial palace where maradonas body is lying in state. German chancellor Angela Merkel says coronavirus restrictions probably wont be sent in time soon. The measures are likely to stay in place until january bars and restaurants are closed, but schools and some shops remain open. British drug company, astra zeneca says its Coronavirus Vaccine testing has been done to the highest standard that has concerns were raised over the effectiveness of their vaccine produced in partnership with oxford university. Oxford says some of the trial injections didnt have the right amount of vaccine because of a manufacturing area, and thats leading to questions about the validity of the results. Finally, booking of fossils phrases and has won reelection according to preliminary results. The Electoral Commission says on wednesday, iraq mockable race a good war, then 3 times as many votes as is nearest rival. Those are the headlines on aljazeera that set for me fully back to board a clock with be with you in under 30 minutes time after the stream alias talk to al jazeera, we realistically, how can you deal with institutionalized corruption in this country . We listen. If this breaks up a conflict between pakistan and india, this has implications for the rest of the world. We meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on aljazeera. And i think me ok, welcome to the stream. Today were going to be joined by the writer gets we will be talking about writing her journey through the literally wells and her tainted novel. The shooting king. Nice to see you. Welcome back to the banking, so much wonder how great was the feel to have someone hold your book up as of right, so lets not stop there like insight. I still cant get use to it. I cant help it. I start smiling every time. Every time i see it, its been an incredible journey with this pork. It has been years of work and its come to this point that i never, never thought possible. I had no idea that me. You would be there holding my book on television, who would have thought. So this is fantastic. Listen when i describe it as a writer, i left it at that. Im looking at your Instagram Page right here. And it says here writes many was shoot the film. How would you like to describe yourself as people love to put labels on writers and love to join was on the militant labels on them . If you were writing your own description, what would you tell our audience about you . You had a Good Research with that. By the way, i am a writer. I am a novelist, im an essayist. I am someone with a very deep appreciation for the art and history of photography. I love to make my own photographs and like my short bio on instagram says, i use of old film camera. I use black and white film. But my bio, i dont know if that would have a target for on there. And this is a discussion ive had with, with a few people because i understand the level of work that goes into calling yourself a photographer. Its not just simply pretty pictures. Theres a philosophy. There are concepts behind this work the same way that i feel comfortable calling myself a writer because i understand the philosophies that guide my work with photography. Im learning, but i have a very deep respect and maybe too much respect for, for fatah. Other photographers, i know the work that they do. One day i would like to get there, but right now i am a deep appreciator and a practice or so missouri right now. We are on youtube which means there and you tube is can ask you questions. I am curious as to we need describe yourself. You didnt look describe your nationality. I want to know why nobody is going to be really mad with you right now. Really earlier. You to hear him talk to the mother about her writing home work the shadow king a bell. You can relate to and this stories that they have to tell really you have you have a for the next 20 minutes or so. Let me get started with the shadow king. So anyone who hasnt read it doesnt know the story. Just very briefly tell us what its about. Well, the novel is set in 1935 during mussolinis invasion of ethiopia in an attempt to colonize it. It tells the story of this war from both sides of the battlefield. The italians as well as the ethiopians. But my main characters are women women who fought in the war and i sent her my attention on an orphan named tito. And the person that she works with works for us there who is a noble woman. And i look at war through the lens of someone who is very poor, who is only role in society, is supposed to be as a maid or a servant. But who feels like she was born to be Something Else beyond what society has made of her. And i also talk about this through our, there are the noble woman who has had the, supposedly all the privileges of a high social standing in ethiopia. And yet she also has felt constricted by her role as a woman in society. Nina, raman has read the show again. This is what she told us about it earlier. So the listen. I said to the will your version of the show and i thought it was absolutely, absolutely and fascinating read. Especially when i learned that it was based around true events that ethiopia was able to hold off an invasion by Italian Forces less, than you see on t. V. , one of the still miss armies in the world at the time. I also heard somewhere that is think that you spent 10 years writing this novel and i wonder how much of that time was spent might in the novel viruses researching the events that that is a really good question. My research on this war started immediately in those early parts of the 1935. So i was doing both research and writing this story, but something happened at about the 5 year mark when i i thought i was finished. I had done so Much Research that i knew this history. I had finished the book. It was, i think it was almost a 1000 pages at that point. It was 890 or 900 something. Pages. But it wasnt a story that i wanted to write. I realized i was telling a historical story as opposed to a story of human beings. And part of the reason the book took so long was that after 5 years, i threw away that manuscript and started again from page one and rewrote the entire book centering women centering here to it. And the book took another, took another 5 years. I did not think that would happen. I thought i could get this done in maybe a year, and that wasnt the case. Anybody who has a desire to write is going to be shot that you scrap book and you started again. Let me share with people. Again, the process that you went through to make sure that the references in your book was accurate as he possibly could make them. And im going to recommend you read this article expecting were behind a war novel. You talk about when we talk about war and to be sure you read the book, its putting those 2 things together, no idea that you dont shy away from science theory is one of the many things that the novel does brilliantly is to engage with the violence this is central to the book was the novel because that for another, not just about the beauty of or but also for any and the imperial struggle. It engage in the arms not only at the level of for nations, people, castles, but also all married. Love of that men do to men that men do to women and women do to them. And so my question of the earth, when he started writing with malvo and while you were engaged in writing it, to what extent were you aware of the need to engage with violence and all these ships with all these contradictions to a time. And how did he go out . Thank you so much for that. I mean, i think we understand war, at least my sense of it is that we witness more through films we. We see war through photographs that come from areas of conflict. And those are either images that have been sanitized and made to look good for the cinema, or they have been flattened and made still for photographs to be printed in newspapers or magazines. And i, i wanted to create a movement of a violence to create this, this sense of war that affects everyone, not just soldiers, but civilians as well. Because this is the reality that when force meets force, it creates devastations beyond what we can ever imagine. And i am speaking this right now as an ethiopian, when we are witnessing conflict in our country, that is heartbreaking. It is absolutely devastating the humanitarian consequences of political and ideological disagreements. They are devastating generations. Its not clean, its not neat. It does not happen between 2 men who have weapons and point at each other under fair circumstances. And i wanted to understand the true brutalities of this, that impact generations can a country truly heal from this. And what happens when a country has had one last one war, one conflict after another . Where does the trauma go . And how do we begin to speak of this so that we can speak together through this divide . And i wanted to think about this in my novel 1935, but writing it also as an american who witnessed the afghan and iraq wars who witnessed the devastation is the way that were still dealing with this. Now guantanamo prison is not closed yet. What does it do to us, to witness this . Can language bear, the weight of all these violent acts . I wasnt sure, but i wanted to try. I wanted to see if there was a way that i could put into language the many layers of devastations that happen in conflict. And i think that the language in which i wrote you needed to be Something Special to, to understand all the complexities of war. Thank you for that question. Mussen i was just scrolling through your tweets to see if there was any hint of what was happening in your ancestral home of pia in your thoughts as you were on social. And i found this and maybe im reading a lot into it, my country, ethiopia, i feel that you poor at your, your pain, into that very short sentence about what is happening for you. Back home. You will 2 books, both talk about worn ethiopia, but you different types. Is that something that is will continue to be a seam in you as nice you can, do you always think somewhere about conflict . You know, i really dont rush and roger was only president , i think im like, ok, nobody said conscious. I was the most ridiculous question in my life. Im libyan are laughing at me. Let me tell you. Because this is what happens. This war 1930 has shaped my understanding of what it means to be ethiopian. The fact that we beat italians, you know, this highly equipped, aggressive, and brutal military. We beat them. So if you can imagine as a young girl coming to america, immigrant, black, african in a place that didnt understand her where i was often ridiculed and you know, i was bullied. And i had this history to fall back on. Because when americans are telling me that i dont belong or that i am nothing, i can say im african and i have a history much longer than the new. What do you have . So war has shaped my sense of who i am. And i came to the United States because there was a revolution in my country, and heres another conflict that has shaped me. And the reason i laugh is that i think that ethiopians, im not unique. We are, weve been shaped by the conflicts that have made this country by the conquests that have been that have broadened, developed its borders. We have been shaped by this. You can, i can go to a baby shower and i can go to a wedding and you know, very so somebody is going to say, we beat those are tyrants. You know, in the glorious moment well have more of our lab. And thats a joke. But its not really saying i reshape the laughter because on the continent of africa, ethiopians are very proud that they beat back the colonialists and they didnt coming out of a very long. And he said, that is how you are acting as it always is. When i read about what you did, in fact, back in the eightys, let me let me to go back. If you put in a different way. This is mr. Tony, and shes wondering if the way that you, that you wrangle history is helpful to how we understand it. Now hes mr. Young and i want to start by thanking you for writing these 2 brilliant books that i have read and completely loved. I think the shadow king is an exceptional story. Its an exceptional retelling of history, and i absolutely love the way you have honored his women at war. You have given them a voice, you have given them, appointee, and you have given them a platform for their stories to be hard and to be remembered. I wanted to ask, how do you think the shadow king has influenced or has shaped the way . If you can see any talents, now remember the 1935210042 extension 1 of the patients. Thank you. I. I realized well 1st, let me speak from the italian aspect of this. This is not something that was taught and readily spoken of in italy. This is a history that most italians dont know unless they have actively sought it. When those soldiers came back from ethiopia, when they came back from east africa, a friend of mine whos an italian told me in her family when her relatives came back. Nobody spoke of it, she said ethiopia is, was a wall is a wall in our family. No one speaks of it now. So the book, my book will be published in the spring of 2021 in italy. Im very interested to see the congress stations that happen. But its not a, its not something that is readily spoken of, but there are other writers in italy, italians who are working and who have written on this history go is another, is one of them. Gabriela, good monday is another one. Friday is another one. And theyre working on this history, so im joining a group of, ironically, women who are doing this on the ethiopian side. I think that everyone knew the history of the victory. But i am not sure how many people really understood the daily realities of living under occupation. Living under a war, the daily occurrences, interactions between italians and east africans, but also libyans who came into east africa as ascii. I dont know how detailed that information, how that detailed information was available in ethiopia. I really had to do research to find out i, i also realize the villagers kept their own histories alive by repeating the stories of what happened in their specific areas and their regions. But those stories did not often get out to the masses to become history. We basically have a book club happening on you tube right now. There are so many questions. I am going to fire the questions at you, and you are going to see my answers backs and we dont have anybody. But are you ready for lion of judah . I love this muslim, do you think ethiopian women are still in the shadow political power in modern ethiopian politics . I think, you know, i think ethiopian women have been present in politics for a very long time. We can think of leading men to war in the 1st conflict with italy, empresses, ody, 2. We have had women in positions of power, but my concern has been those people who are born in prayer or families. They were born to different groups of different ethnicities. Different regions and ignored because of who they were, how have we, how have we paid attention to them . How have we given them . Support however, we empowered them and my concern is with those women, particularly who dont always have the means to be noticed. And to be heard. As i remember, this is the speed round and we have hundreds of people in our virtual grazing where you dont want sex. Sorry, i wasnt it. Yeah. All right, next on it disaster. Next. This ones from Marvin Marvin is waiting. What do you think drove those women to fight for their country, even when they were still say, sue, being subjugated, subjugated to the harshness of the patriarchy in ethiopia. The question, this is a very fast square. Very fast answer is they saw war as an opportunity to change their station in life. They were fighting not just for their country, but for themselves as well. So uneek, thank you for your courage and determination to tell the story of how you present facts, dates, and sense and violence from overcoming your voice revision. I mean that its just, this is what we do. As writers, everything happens in revision, write it all down and then revise. Chris fine. How do you deal with criticisms of focusing on conflicts a century ago . He said its more current ones being that the role of women is so much different now. Oh, i dont know if the role of women is so much different and i dont know if there has been a i dont know about criticisms about writing from the past. The past helps us understand the present. And as far as right, if youre not writing about this very moment, youre writing the past. So i writers do that. We need time and reflection on what has happened in the past. Theres a quote from the shadow king, which is about the battlefield. Im going to share that without reince and just give you a moment. Youll save a bit of the book at a tiny little, not even a page. I get a little snippet of a page. Youve got the time to find that when i read a little bit that we love you history. So this is about women being in it being a battlefield on their bodies as well as actually going to war. Shes a soldier trapped inside a barbed wire fence, but shes still at war and the battlefield is her own body. Apparatchiks come to realize as a prisoner, that is where it has always been so beautiful. Can you imagine how much better the show is going to get now that mothers meaning our own mother . I said, im not a little snippet of what even to only i had a little bit. This is when here it is. At the barbed wire fence. She just not change her breathing or stiffen her body or feeling helplessly when that same hospital reacts, open the gate and bends into her face and shouts her name until it is a hard and painful blast in her ear. Instead she looks up at his face, glowed with futile anger, and calmly waits for whatever comes next. Because this is one thing that neither the ascii northwich shelley nor the stupid soul doctors staring at her with a gaping mouth, well never will ever know that she is here or would daughter of fasting and gayety feared guard of the shadow king. And she is no longer afraid of what men can do to women like her. Thank you. If people dont go get them, but now theyre never going to get the vote. This is an identity. Shes an assistant english professor and she has afan a question for you by any go ahead. African women are reclaiming the a place in history through early trade show that centers, women as principal actors in historical narratives. Its important to know that this is a far cry from another leg, actually as things fall apart, where women seem to be generally oblivious about the changes taking place around them. To date what we have seen, the historical fiction, written by african women, are female characters who are deeply aware of the forces shaping their worlds and the impact of the air on actions on this forces. Absolutely, absolutely. We have petain, and we have Jennifer Mccombe and theres a line of women writing who are centering women. I think its partly for the fact that we know that we have been there and we have always been there. And the stories have not been a shifting of any lens, but really just cleaning it off so that we can see whats actually been there all along. Most of whats really obvious from where you choose to share your thoughts you would show is that you inspire a lot of people. Let me show you what maazel did. A few hours ago, she said i am going to be on stream. How would you answer this question . This was the question that we asked about black and african workers, how they write, working to reclaim their narratives. And the response goes on and on, and on a what i got from this was that people who were already doing it, they did the permission. They did this, you need inspiration. But this one phenomena was really nice. A funny artsy is the time that you came to syracuse and you help me be part of my answer. You were like, you could just say your parents are gone and which i was being clearly and weird about for some reason. And something to me just being myself was ok inspired to pull. Thank you for bring on the stream today. Mustnt get, you know, thank you so much of the shadow. Thank you to everyone who joined in. Thank you. Its been a pleasure chatting to you. Thank you very much. Thank you. This wraps up the streams book. Its been fun. See you next time. Thanks for watching everybody. Bye for now. December on aljazeera, its 10 years since of revolution in tunisia ignited the arab spring. Aljazeera looks back at the uprising and asks what really changed across the middle east. This stream is where al jazeera is global audience becomes a global community. I give up to the 1st coronavirus case in china. Well examine the devastation caused by the virus and the efforts made to eliminate covert 90 people in power is back with more investigative documentaries and indepth stories. Climate leaders will gather online to press ahead with a new stage of the paris climate agreement and examine the possible global solutions. December on aljazeera. The American People have finally for poking america as i split, when america is off balance or become more dangerous. The world is looking at us live mixture of sadness and with the election behind us. Will the Republican Party dump truck to the feel we can take on us politics and society . Thats the bottom line. We need to stand the differences on the similarities and cultures across the world. So much what we do to the news and kind of forums that nasa team in afghanistan, the taliban is renowned for its violent repression of women. Now a new deal with the u. S. Could see the group return to power one o one a sting. This to gates, the afghan women who paid the price the pace on aljazeera. Weve never had a president who has literally for 45 years repeatedly attacked our democracy. You know, blew through the interactive and financially i dont have a narrative. I have a question here hitting their brain where people cant get treated and just feel so even further. Joining me, Richelle Carey and up front is my guess from around the world. Take the hot seat and we debate the weeks top stories in pressing issues here on aljazeera. This is aljazeera this is the news hour live from doha, coming up in the next 60 minutes. The european Prime Minister orders a final offensive on tikrit and announces a humanitarian corridor to help those fleeing the fighting. But i scored hands down hundreds of life sentences linked to the 2016 failed coup, accusing some of trying to kill president 31 and uphill battle for germany as it seeks to shut ski slopes