Ахлам Мустеганеми: Голос Алжира в арабской литературе

Algerian writer

Ahlam Mosteghanemi (أحلام مستغانمي; born 13 April 1953, Tunisia) is an Algerian poet and writer. She was the first Algerian woman to write poetry and fiction in Arabic. She has published four novels and six anthologies, and is best known for her 1993 novel Memory of the Flesh. In 2007 and 2008, she was ranked #96 and #58 respectively as the most influential Arab by the Arabian Business magazine.

Mosteghanemi's family was originally from Constantine in eastern Algeria. Her father, an Algerian nationalist, was imprisoned following the 1945 Sétif riots in which two of his brothers were killed. He was released in 1947 and the family relocated to Tunis, Tunisia, where Mosteghanemi was born in 1953. Her father continued his activism and support of Algerian independence. After Algeria gained independence in 1962 he took prominent positions in the government of Ahmed Ben Bella. In 1965, the Boumediene coup d'état removed Ben Bella from power, and her father suffered a mental breakdown and was sent to a hospital in Algiers. His mental struggles and the continued political turmoil in Algeria left him resentful, confused, and disillusioned. In the absence of her father, Mosteghanemi, as the eldest sibling, provided for her family by working as a radio host. At the age of seventeen, she became popular in Algeria with a poetic daily show, Hammassat (Whispers). In 1973, she became the first woman to publish a compilation of poetry in Arabic when she published Ala Marfa al Ayam (To the Day's Haven). This was followed in 1976 by Al Kitaba fi Lahdat Ouray (The Writing in a Moment of Nudity). Mosteghanemi belonged to the first generation in Algeria that was able to study and write in Arabic, after more than a century of prohibition by the French. Mosteghanemi received her first degree in Literature from the University of Algiers. Following involvement in women's rights activism, she was then denied enrolment in a Master's programme at the same university, with the board of directors stating that her freedom of expression would have a negative effect on the other students. She was also expelled from the Union of Algerian Writers for not conforming to the established political line. about the representation of women in both Francophone and Arabic literature.

Ala Marfa al Ayam (In the Harbour of Days) Published by SNED in Algers 1973. Al Kitaba fi Lahdat Ouray (Writing in a Moment of Nudity) Published by Dar Al Adab in Beirut 1976. Algérie, femmes et écriture (Algeria, Women and Writings) Published by l'Harmattan in Paris 1985. Akadib Samaka (Lies of a Fish) Published by l'ENAG in Algiers 1993. Nessyane. com (The Art of Forgetting) Published by Dar Al Adab in Beirut 2009. Shahiyyan ka firâq (Delicious as Parting Dreams) Published by Hachette Antoine/Naufal 2018.

Named UNESCO Artist for Peace by director Irina Bokova in Paris, 2016.