The present Doodle praises the 91st birthday of Egyptian feminist author Fatimah Rifaat, most popular by her pen name Alifa Rifaat. Her short boldly challenged societal norms by exploring female relationships, sexuality, and emotional battles.
Brought into the world on this day in 1930 in Cairo, Fatimah Rifaat penned her first short story—a story revolved around the town her family frequented in the summers—at just nine years of age.
In spite of the fact that her older sister reprimanded her for her writing, she proceeded with her dreams of becoming an writer through English studies at the University of Cairo in the last part of the 40s.
Her kin wasn’t the lone individual near her that endeavored to silence her voice. Despite the fact that she distributed numerous stories under her pseudonym from 1955 to 1960, Rifaat’s husband disliked her art and kept her from releasing her work for over 10 years.
In the mid 1970s, she at long last started to write short stories once more, an collection of which she released in 1983 under the title “Distant View of Minaret.” This uncensored selection of 15 fiction narratives brings readers into the emotional world of inter-marriage conflict, bravely confronting forbidden subjects with the expectation that more women such as herself were urged to talk their truth.
In 1984, the Modern Literature Assembly honored Rifaat with the Excellency Award to pay tribute to her more than 100 distributed works, large numbers of which have been converted into various languages and read on major international media outlets.
Happy birthday, Alifa Rifaat! Thank you for not being afraid to share your truth and inspiring others to do the same.
