Sahar Bahrawi

From Cairo to London

She holds a BA in Psychology with a minor in Theatre Arts from the American University in Cairo, and an MA in Writing for Stage, Television, Radio and Cinema from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London.

The writer

She has published four novels — three in Arabic and one in English: Prisoner of the Body (2014), Amna (2017), Confined (2019) and Whispers of a Mirror (2021) — and a collection of plays for adults and children.

In 2018 she wrote and produced Khawater Shabha, an all-women comedy staged at the Dar Al-Hekma University theatre and an early milestone for women's theatre in the Kingdom. In 2022 she was nominated for the National Theatre Award, and in 2025 she returned to the Jeddah Book Fair with two published plays: An Hour of Hope and The Last Throw.

Then life changed course

After a battle with cancer and a near-death experience, Sahar decided that her second chance at life would be about one thing: building children, and through them, building society.

With her mother

Her way with children

She has her own way with children and teenagers. In her classes, theatre is not acting training; it is a tool to empower children and young people. A child learns to stand in front of others, to make a mistake, laugh and try again, to say their opinion in a clear voice, to listen, and to work within a team — so confidence and skills grow while they are enjoying the frame of play. Most of all, theatre becomes the path by which children embrace their language, culture and values: not through lessons, but through story, laughter and love.

In the field

She taught drama for a full year at Afaq Academy, the school founded by the Ministry of Culture together with the Ministry of Education for gifted students. In 2026 her students took the top three places in Jeddah in the middle-school category of the Cultural & Artistic Skills competition, the national competition organised by the Ministries of Culture and Education.

Working with school principals, administrators and social workers, Sahar uses her knowledge of theatre, alongside her background in psychology, to address the problems children actually face at school — from bullying to the fear of speaking.

Psychology, on stage

Psychology lets Sahar understand what is happening inside a child; playwriting lets her turn that inner dialogue into a story the child laughs with and sees themselves in. Among her most important works is Tsunami Aisha, a musical comedy performed by the children of the 2026 summer camp, in which a girl's feelings — anxiety, anger and shyness — become living characters on stage.

Her works

Sahar with her published works