The Egyptian Lebanese House has published a book titled “Tales of Love” by the well-known lawyer and TV presenter, Nehad Abulkomsan. This is not a book about a conception of love as dreamy and romantic, that pertains more to the space of fiction. It is rather a book that deals with that side of love which stems from the mind, and that lays its foundations on friendship and companionship, on understanding each other in having a common purpose. A form of love that is mature and transcends the boundaries of disputes and personal differences, leading to a victory for the family experience and the educational mission.
The book deals with the story of Abulkomsan’s marriage to the late lawyer and human rights activist Hafez Abu Seada. It begins with the first time she met him, at the Faculty of Law at Cairo University in 1989, and it tells the story of how she fell in love with her mind before her heart, and the battle she had to go through in light of her father’s refusal for her to marry the “young man of prisons”, as he was called!
In the book, Abulkomsan narrates the exciting journey that these two young people went through, after being first connected by love, and later by the desire to achieve success, and the dream of a better tomorrow, not only for them, but for the entire country. The book also accounts for the continuity of their journey together, despite the many differences between them, until the tragic end of this relationship due to the death of Hafez Abu Seada in November 2020 as a result of his infection with the Corona virus.
And after she lost her husband – and her teacher – she re-discovered new meanings in terms that she had heard and repeated before many times, and she realized that not only she had lost a husband, but much more than that since she was connected to him as , “the connection of a daughter who feels absolute security and unconditional love.. The attachment of the wife who perceives with him perfection and completeness.. the connection of the lover who sees in uniting with him a return to the one soul from which God created us.”
“Tales of Love” begins with Nehad Abulkomsan’s attempt to summon the moments that she has lived with her late husband, and the book becomes a way to overcome the ordeal and challenges that came after this harsh shock. She says “When I started writing love tales, I used to write them for Nehad’s soul, which united with Hafez’s soul. I do not comprehend his absence, and I summon him to comfort my soul by writing moments we lived together. With every thought, every letter, I smell his scent, hear his heartbeat, and I feel the warmth of his breath on my face. I unite with him as I have always felt, that we are two in the same breath. Our existence together, despite all our disputes and differences, is to return to the paradise from which Adam and Eve came out to populate the earth and return to it again.”
Nehad Abulkomsan does not only talk in this book about her late husband, Hafez Abu Seada, but also monitors an important stage that Egypt went through, and the Egyptians went through, and sheds light on the scenes of events that witnessed the birth of the first human rights movement in Egypt, the January 25 and June 30 revolutions, and the details of the meeting held by the former Minister of Interior, Major General Mohamed Ibrahim, with the leaders of human rights organizations before the dispersal of the Rabaa and Al-Nahda sit-ins.
“Love Tales” was issued in 264 pages of medium volume, and includes three sections and nine chapters. The first section is entitled: “Hafez Abu Seada.. The Man, the Husband and the Father,” and the second is entitled: “Hafez Abu Seada.. The Lawyer and Human Rights Activist,” and the third section came under the title: “Words from the Heart.. About the Beloved of the Heart.”
Nehad Abulkomsan is an Egyptian lawyer, member of the National Council for Human Rights, former Secretary-General of the National Council for Women, director of the Gender & Legal Expert House, president of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights. She is a TV presenter, and the recipient of many national and international awards, the most recent of which is the Civil Merit Medal in 2020, which she received from the King of Spain.
The book can be ordered online via the following link of the Egyptian-Lebanese House www.almasriahbookstores.com
