Hanan al-Shaykh
Hanan al-Shaykh (Arabic: حنان الشيخ; born 12 November 1945) is a Lebanese author of contemporary literature.
Hanan al-Shaykh was born in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1945, into a strict Shi’a family. Her father and brother exerted strict social control over her during her childhood and adolescence. She attended the Almillah primary school for Muslim girls where she received a traditional education for Muslim girls, before continuing her education at the Ahliah school. She continued her gender-segregated education at the American College for Girls in Cairo, Egypt, graduating in 1966.
She returned to Lebanon to work for the Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar until 1975. She left Beirut again in 1975 at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War and moved to Saudi Arabia to work and write there. She now lives in London.
Her daughter is Juman Malouf, a writer, illustrator and costume designer who in 2015 was the romantic partner of American director Wes Anderson.
