Written in direct response to the ongoing revolution in Egypt, Ibrahim El-Husseini's Commedia Al-Ahzaan (Comedy of Sorrows) follows a young university-educated Egyptian woman through a series of encounters with different members of society. Through these encounters, she comes to realize how little she understands her own country.

Directed by Rebekah Maggor
Translated by Rebekah Maggor and Mohammed Albakry

00:00:00 Welcome and Introduction

Lizabeth Cohen, Dean, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study; Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Department of History, Harvard University

00:08:05 Dramatic Reading of Commedia Al-Ahzaan (Comedy of Sorrows)

1:22:20 Panel Discussion with Q&A Session

Rebekah Maggor, Director, Comedy of Sorrows; Lecturer, Department of English, Vanderbilt University

Ibrahim El-Husseini, Playwright, Comedy of Sorrows

Cynthia Schneider, Former United States Ambassador to the Netherlands; Distinguished Professor in Practice of Diplomacy, Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service; and Associate Professor of Art History, Department of Art and Art History, Georgetown University

Moderated by Robin Young, Host, Here & Now, WBUR

"Women Making Democracy" considers the role of women specifically—and gender more generally—in movements for democratic change. Activists, journalists, and academics from different fields and disciplines examine and analyze recent events in countries affected by the democratizing efforts often described as "Arab Spring" and compare women's experiences of these events with those of women in other moments of democratic change around the world, including Eastern Europe, South Africa, and Latin America.