Saudi-Arabien: Begegnungen in einem Land der Widersprüche

In the organizer's words:

Lecture by Nadine Pungs

From Dammam to Jeddah, from Riyadh to the Red Sea: an unknown country is opening up.

Closed for decades, Saudi Arabia is currently undergoing an epochal change. Writer Nadine Pungs has spent months traveling the Gulf state alone: from the port city of Jeddah to the high-tech metropolis of Riyadh, from the ancient treasury of al-Ula to the holy city of Medina, she gets to know the female side of the country in particular. She gains exclusive insights that are usually denied to male travelers. And it is often the women in the Middle East about whom people in the West know the least, but who have the most to tell.

In Saudi Arabia, Pungs meets a feminist Koran teacher and a lesbian engineer. But she also meets a prince and a young boy who fled from neighboring Yemen.
At the same time, she immerses herself in the history and political entanglements of a country that oscillates between seclusion and cosmopolitanism, Bedouin romanticism and futuristic urban planning, Tinder and the death penalty.

Pung tells clear-sighted and touching stories that would never appear in the news.

"Here is a woman who hides nothing, not even the hardships of foreignness, the speechlessness, the restlessness. And who describes them in a tone that swings and reminds us what thirty silent letters can do." Andreas Altmann

About Nadine Pungs
Nadine Pungs studied literature and history. As a cabaret artist she performed in the theater and organized comedy shows, today she works as a freelance author. In her search for intensity and beauty, she is constantly drawn to the world, often to the Middle East. She recently spent months traveling in Saudi Arabia. She talks about her encounters and observations in books and lectures. Her books published by Piper/Malik include "Das verlorene Kopftuch. How Iran touched my heart", "My journey to the land of the day after tomorrow. Traveling alone from Jordan to Oman" and "Spring in Saudi Arabia. Encounters in a land of contradictions".

Website: www.nadinepungs.de
Instagram: frau.pungs