Forugh Karimi from Den Bosch has won the 2023 Hebban Debut Award. That means her novel ‘The Mothers of Mahipar’ is the best literary debut of the year. She was awarded the prize on Friday evening.
The Hebban Debuutprijs is a prize for people who have written their first literary book. The organization calls it an ‘encouragement award’. A reader’s jury of more than a hundred readers makes a first selection, after which a professional jury chooses which debut is the winner.
The jury said about the book by de Bossche Karimi: “It provides a poignant and nuanced picture of the loneliness and powerlessness of refugees. Karimi deserves a large readership, she stimulates the reader with a bitter, but loving family story.”
Escaped
In her book ‘The Mothers of Mahipar’, the author tells the story of an Afghan refugee who builds a new life in the Netherlands. He doesn’t know much about his origins as an adult, but he slowly but surely finds out.
Forugh Karimi herself fled from Afghanistan to the Netherlands at the age of 25 with her husband. She has also built a new life here. She now works in Den Bosch as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist.
Joy
Karimi says she is happy and surprised with the prize: “My novel deals with different themes and has several layers, as literature should be. Yet the first thing that comes to mind is that one aspect: the strength and courage of Afghan women.”
She hopes that thanks to this prize the suppressed voice of the refugee will be heard a little more. “That will be a comfort to the deep powerlessness that regularly takes hold of me when I think about my native country.”