Mieke Zagt

Born in the 60-ies, somewhere in the South of the Netherlands, in a small village on the banks of the river Mark, where most people spoke a dialect I never fully understood. As soon as possible I left for Amsterdam to study Philosophy and Arts. During my last years at university I entered the board of Savante, an academic magazine for gender studies at the UVA and I started to work at Lankamp & Brinkman at the Spiegelgracht, the most beautiful bookshop sepcializd in literature and arts. Numerous clients like Arnon Grunberg and Jeroen Krabbe bought their weekly staple of books. I enjoyed in full and stayed longer then planned. Volunteering for Amnesty International brought me to a next step in life: human rights, for all. No exclusion. The first testcase was Iran. Then Palestine. Why people compromise on human rights when talking about the Middle East? These challenges never hindered me in loving the beauty of life, on the contrary, they make me see clear what is important and what is not.