Nobel Peace Prize nominee RITA EL KHAYAT – a Moroccan psychiatrist, anthro-psychoanalyst, writer, and anthropologist – speaks to Francesca Vella about her “march towards peace among all people” and her view that 99 per cent of the world’s population are “Non-Important Persons” (NIPs). These people should be more celebrated and should learn the real meaning of sharing, she explains.
Born into what she describes as a very traditional Arab-Islamic family in Morocco’s capital, Rabat, Rita El Khayat felt she had no freedom to be herself and no way of expressing herself.
Speaking on an online podcast about African history, culture, and politics, she says: “It was so difficult to be a girl... it was so hard to be a student of medicine among men. I used to ask myself: why do I have to suffer so much to be myself, to exist?”
In her view, she was not born a woman, but she became a woman. It was not really possible for a woman in Morocco to be creative she explains.
After moving to Paris, where she graduated in three fields of medicine, Dr El Khayat began to write.
She says that when she is disturbed by a problem and has serious questions, she expresses herself in writing.
She has published 32 books in French and Italian, as well as a number of articles and poems.
Dr El Khayat’s thinking is shaped by the political situation in different cultures, by the concepts of freedom, democracy and equality.
But she does not focus on equality among men and women, but more on equality among people in general. She speaks about disadvantaged people, for instance, saying that right now it is not possible to say that people are like brothers living at peace with each other.
Asked what aspects of her work she believes have led to her nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize 2008, Dr El Khayat says: “My research is based on seeking to understand different people around the world. Then I also go into psychoanalysis, trying to understand common aspects among people and seeing how different cultures mix and merge.
The people who matter the most in the world are not given due importance, according to the Moroccan academic.
“People who go to work at 4am, people working in hospitals at night... does anyone ever acknowledge these people? We have to ‘be’ more and have less,” she explains.
About 40 million people worldwide suffer from depression, she says, as she highlights the difficulty of being at peace with oneself.
Moreover, says Dr El Khayat, nature has been devastated by human beings. She believes the human race needs to be at peace with nature but there is also another dimension to her thinking – the true meaning of democracy, that is socio-economic democracy.
“For the sake of argument, I ask: Why should you have two cars, when I can hardly cope to sustain my family?” she insists.
Does she think her dream will ever come true?
“I will continue writing and I will carry on trying to promote my thinking. I want to use my research to create awareness in a bid to improve the current situation,” says Dr El Khayat.
During her stay in Malta, Dr El Khayat met with President Eddie Fenech Adami, as well as Labour’s Deputy Leader for Parliamentary Affairs Anglu Farrugia. Her meeting with members of the press at Whitehall Mansions in Ta’ Xbiex, was made possible by Philip M. Chircop, director general of the Confederation Christian Crusades – Assisi.
The winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on 10 October. Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross, shared the first Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 with Frédéric Passy, a leading international pacifist of the time.
In addition to humanitarian efforts and peace movements, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded for work in a wide range of fields including advocacy of human rights, mediation of international conflicts, and arms control.