‘Unfinished Stories,’ a wall with nearly 7,000 names of Gaza victims at SIBF

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

The ongoing Sharjah International Book Fair has been getting a tremendous attention from people of every walk of life who are exploring hundreds of stalls stuffed with thousands of new titles.

Apart from offering thousands of new titles to avid book lovers, the book fair is also making heads turn with a number of events and activities going on simultaneously at stalls of various publishers.

The stall of Uhibbook in Hall 6 is one of them where a wall titled ‘Unfinished Stories’ bearing the names of over 6,000 Palestinians who are killed in Gaza during recent strikes by Israel is on display.  

“The wall has been quite a conversation starter in this intellectual gathering. We have had many visitors stopping by to see the wall. Many of them are overcome by emotion and unable to say anything, and some of them are curious about the names. Some stop to say a prayer and write a wish for peace," said Shabna Ibrahim, co-founder Ubibbook Publishing while talking to the Gulf Today.

“We have connected with people on a very personal and emotional level, and realised that everyone around us is deeply affected by what’s happening especially in Gaza,” she said.

“From the day one, we witnessed many visitors who became emotional once they knew the story behind the names and showed their respect. These names we collected from the ministry of health of Palestine,” she said.

“Uhibbook is a play on the word ‘Uhib’ in Arabic which means ‘I love you’ but we use it to say ‘I Love Books’. Uhibbook Publishing is an independent publishing house – established by three Indian expats, Sadia Anwar, Mehnaz Anshah and Shabna Ibrahim, residing in the UAE – aimed at creating books for impact. This is a mission-based initiative that focuses on creating high quality books that serve to change the world, one book at a time,” she said.

This is second time that they are participating in the Sharjah International Book Fair and this time they are hosting a book launch and panel discussion sessions.

Telling the motivation behind the wall of Unfinished Stories, she said “We had our stall decor planned out and we’re going to create a graphics talking about our journey from self-publishing to setting up Uhibbook Publishing, with the milestones and challenges displayed. But at the last minute, 5 days before the fair, as the genocide and war crimes against Palestine were started, so we decided to highlight the sufferings through our gesture.

"As we go on with our lives and jobs, we wanted to use whatever platform we have to remember all the people, the innocent souls, unfinished stories that never had a chance. We saw the list of people killed and there are nearly 7000 people from infants to elderly, entire generations and 100s of families completely wiped out,” she added

Talking about their future plans, she said “We want to create positive social change through the books that we publish and the voices we amplify. Our upcoming projects include a children’s book on climate change, a poetry book on personal reflection and spirituality and books that celebrate that local heritage and culture. We want to work with people and organizations who are committed to values and want to create a positive impact and leave a lasting legacy."