Widows

Mineke Schipper is a cultural historian and

writer. She is the author of seven critically

acclaimed works including Never Marry a

Woman with Big Feet: Women in Proverbs

from Around the World and Naked or Covered:

A History of Dressing and Undressing Around

the World. Her writing has been published

in The Times, El Mundo and the Los Angeles

Times, among others. Schipper was foreign

secretary of Dutch PEN, chair of Index

on Censorship Nederland and currently

serves as Emeritus Professor of Intercultural

Literary Studies at the University of Leiden, Netherlands,

with visiting professorships in Nigeria,

Kenya, Zimbabwe, Burkina Faso and China.

She received a Royal Order of Knighthood

for her contribution to social and cultural

studies.