Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (30 June 1936 – 6 February 2015), known by her pen name Assia Djebar ( ar, آسيا جبار), was an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her
feminist stance. She is "frequently associated with women's writing movements, her novels are clearly focused on the creation of a genealogy of Algerian women, and her political stance is virulently anti-patriarchal as much as it is anti-colonial." Djebar is considered to be one of
North Africa
North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in t ...
's pre-eminent and most influential writers. She was elected to the
Académie française
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
on 16 June 2005, the first writer from the
Maghreb
The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...
to achieve such recognition. For the entire body of her work she was awarded the 1996
Neustadt International Prize for Literature
The Neustadt International Prize for Literature is a biennial literary award, award for literature sponsored by the University of Oklahoma and its international literary publication, ''World Literature Today''. It is considered one of the more p ...
. She was often named as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Early life
Fatima-Zehra Imalayen or Djebbar was born on 30 June 1936 in
Cherchell
Cherchell ( Arabic: شرشال) is a town on Algeria's Mediterranean coast, west of Algiers. It is the seat of Cherchell District in Tipaza Province. Under the names Iol and Caesarea, it was formerly a Roman colony and the capital of t ...
, Algeria, to Tahar Imalhayène and Bahia Sahraoui, a family of
Chenouas Berber origin. She was raised in Cherchell, a small seaport village near
Algiers in the Province of
Aïn Defla. Djebar's father taught French at Mouzaïaville, a primary school she attended. Later, Djebar attended a Quranic private boarding school in