“To our shared humanity”: an interview with Iman Aoun

Iman Aoun is an actor, director, and dramaturg as well as co-founder and Executive Director of Ashtar Theatre, an award-winning theater performance and education organization in Palestine. Recently she was recognized with a Women’s Intervention for a Sustainable Future Award, which celebrates women creating change on a global level. The following interview provides local and international context for her work creating theater for social change including the project The Gaza Monologues, a global initiative to share stories from the lives of children in Gaza. She reflects on the initial creation and performance of the monologues in 2010 and the ways in which its enduring presence speaks to the current situation in Gaza. In this conversation, she considers how “theatre makes us human” and what it means for women artists to reimagine societies.