Joris Luyendijk

Joris Luyendijk (b. 1971) studied political science, history, Arabic and anthropology. He was editor-in-chief of Move Your World Magazine about young people and development cooperation. Between 1998 and 2003 he lived in Cairo, then Beirut and finally East Jerusalem, working for the newspapers de Volkskrant and NRC Handelsblad as well as for Dutch radio and television. He has published Egypt. A Good Man Sometimes Hits his Wife (1997) and The Corner of the Veil (2001). In Hello Everybody! (Profile, 2010) he examines how journalists and correspondents really work, rather than how they claim to work. This Cannot Be True: Among Bankers (2015), based on blogs he wrote for The Guardian, Luyendijk provides an anthropological perspective on the financial world.

In 2002 he was awarded the Golden Pen, the Dutch prize for journalism, and in 2007 the NS Publieksprijs for Hello Everybody!.

Egypte

Een goede man slaat soms zijn vrouw

(Podium, 1998, 236 pagina's)

When Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister, was shot dead in November 1995, Egyptian opposition newspapers reacted jubilantly with headlines like ‘Rabin in Hell’ and ‘One More Dead Jew’. Joris Luyendijk’s Egyptian friends at the University of Cairo also spoke in terms of ‘a celebration’, ‘justice’ and ‘just punishment from Allah’. Luyendijk and a Western friend were shocked by these reactions but went against their better judgement by trying to sympathise. ‘We decided that if we had lost family members in a war with Israel, we might think that way too. What are you supposed to do? Find a complete new set of friends?’

Het zijn net mensen

Beelden uit het Midden-Oosten

(Podium, 2006, 220 pagina's)

How many followers does Osama Bin Laden have in the Arab world? What do Muslims think about equality between men and women? And what about democracy? Western media reports give the impression – to take the first question only – that Bin Laden has a large worldwide following. But is this an accurate picture? Do we really know what is going on in the Arab world?

Dit kan niet waar zijn

Onder bankiers

(Atlas Contact, 2015, 207 pagina's)

One of the few upsides to the financial crisis has been the wealth of books published about its causes and consequences. They include some excellent anthropological accounts, of which Luyendijk’s bestseller is among the most valuable.

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