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Lesley Lababidi's Biography

Lesley Lababidi pictureLesley Lababidi is the author of Cairo's Street Stories: Exploring the City's Statues, Squares, Bridges, Gardens, and Sidewalk Caf's (AUC Press, 2008), Cairo: The Practical Guide (AUC Press,15th edition, 2012), Cairo: The Family Guide (AUC Press, 4th Edition, 2010), Silent No More Special Needs People in Egypt (AUC Press, 2002), Paddle Your Own Canoe An American Woman's Passage Into Nigeria (Spectrum Books, 1997), and Bahgory Legacy (Obelisque Publications, 2013). Her articles are found in: Obelisque Magazine, Persimmon Tree Magazine, Horus, Turath, Valerie Magazine, ARCE newsletter and various other Egyptian publications.

Lababidi’s new book, a 2018 release, A Field Guide to Street Names of Central Cairo, was written jointly with renowned translator of Arabic, Dr. Humphrey Davies. The Field Guide has been critically acclaimed for its engagement with the streets of Cairo as ‘a palimpsest of (Cairo’s) history’. The Guide is a truly admirable feat, listing more than 500 current and 300 former street names ‘with an explanation of what each name commemorates and when it was first recorded, followed by the same for its predecessors’. It possesses universal appeal: citizens of Egypt, long-term residents, visitors, in short all those who are fascinated by ‘this most multi-layered of cities’ will find their curiosity satisfied by this Field Guide.