6 Dec 2021 14:00 - 15:00
Caabu invites you to an online book launch with multi-award winning journalist and author Janine di Giovanni, who will be discussing her new book, The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East on the plight of Christians across the Middle East on Monday 6 December 2021 at 2pm (GMT UK time).
Register for this online book launch here.
The book can be purchased here through Caabu's affiliate page on Bookshop.org. Caabu receives 10% of any purchase made as does an independent book shop.
In June 2021, Janine di Giovanni previously chaired an online Caabu panel discussion on the current and future status of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. It can be watched here.
When: Monday 6 December 2021, 14:00 (GMT, UK time).
Where: Online. Sign up for the discussion here.
The event will also be live-streamed on Caabu's Youtube channel which you can also subscribe to. Previous Caabu briefings and discussions can also be watched here and a recording of this event will be posted here afterwards also.
Caabu has created an affiliate page on Bookshop. This means, that with any purchase through this site, 10% of the sale price will be sent to us and another 10% will go to support local bookshops. We think this is a great way to support Caabu's work and independent bookshops across the country. More details about it can be found here.
- The Vanishing by Janine di Giovanni is available to purchase here.
- You can find other books written by Janine di Giovanni here.
- Buy other books from previous online Caabu briefings here and from physical events we've hosted here.
- Titles written by Caabu board members and patrons can be found here, as can others written by those who have spoken at Caabu events here.
We hope you enjoy reading any of these titles, and supporting Caabu in the process.
You can sign up for the discussion here using your email address. Please note that sign up is a two part process. Once you have signed up with your email address, this will then be approved, and details will then be emailed to you ahead of the event. Please do check your inbox (including Junk and Clutter folders) for this email with the link to join the event on the day.
Please register below AHEAD of time to join this online briefing. This makes it much more helpful to us: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkcOusrjsqHtX5Dkv21eKrgJbEYKiau2Pz
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About the speaker:
Janine di Giovanni is a multi-award winning journalist and author, and a Senior Fellow and Lecturer at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs. She has reported some of the world’ most violent conflicts and wars for three decades, investigating and documenting human rights abuse in the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. She is currently directing a project sponsored by the UN Democracy Fund that promotes transitional justice in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria called Enabling Witnesses, working with Yale Jackson MA students. In 2019, she won a Guggenheim Fellowship for her life time research in the Middle East, and in 2020, she received the American Academy of Arts and Letters highest prize for non-fiction, the Blake Dodd, for her body of work spanning 30 years. Further awards include the National Magazine Award, two Amnesty International Prizes and the prestigious Courage in Journalism Prize.
Janine is the author of nine books; her most recent, The Morning They Came for Us, was translated into 30 languages. Her new book The Vanishing: The Twilight of Christianity in the Middle East publishes in December 2021, by Bloomsbury Publishing. janinedigiovanni.com
She Tweets @janinedigi.
About the book:
From Syria to Egypt, the cities of northern Iraq to the Gaza Strip, award-winning journalist Janine di Giovanni takes us on a powerful journey to discover the last traces of small, hardy Christian communities whose ancient rituals are preserved amid 360-degree threats. These regions have nurtured some of the oldest continuous Christian communities on Earth going back 2,000 years. Yet their numbers are now dwindling so rapidly due to the threat of war, religious persecution and economic uncertainty that di Giovanni argues they could disappear completely.
Janine di Giovanni has spent many years travelling and reporting on Christian communities in the Middle East. Her interviews and observations, alongside previous years of reporting from the different regions, reveals the plight and possible loss of Christian communities after thousands of years in their historical homeland. In Gaza, fewer than one thousand Christians remain, whilst in Egypt the building of churches is restricted and there are frequent attacks on congregations.
Yet there are still glimmers of hope in these amazingly resilient communities – near Mosul, churches were raised to the ground, yet di Giovanni still witnessed people attending them anyway, squatting on the broken pews in half-built structures. Meanwhile in Gaza, the last Christian bookshop still conducts services for the local community, despite continued threats of firebombs.
Based on years of reporting and extensive interviews and conversations with those at the heart of these communities, The Vanishing reveals the plight and possible loss of Christian communities across Syria, Egypt, Iraq, and Gaza. By capturing the personal stories of these communities, di Giovanni provides a lasting insight into this living religion and explores what the future might hold for these communities.
Caabu is a not-for-profit cross-party organisation whose mission is to work for a British Middle East policy that promotes conflict resolution, human rights and civil society in the Arab world through informed debate and mutual understanding. Caabu is one of the most active NGOs working on the Middle East in British parliament since its establishment in 1967. From then on Caabu has assumed an active advocacy, educational and media role.
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