Ahlem Mosteghanemi
Ahlem Mosteghanemi.s first collection of poetry, ..ala Marf. al-Ayyam., was published in 1973, the same year that she received her degree in literature from the university of Algeria. Mosteghanemi belong to what came to be known as the first .arabised. generation of university graduates in Algeria after independence.
Mosteghanemi.s novel .al-Kitaba fi Lahzati .Uri. (Writing at the Moment of Nakedness) was published in 1976. in 1980 she undertook her P.h.D. in sociology at the Sorbonne. Her supervisor, the renowned sociologist Jacques Berque wrote the introduction to Mosteghanemi.s 1982 publication, .Algerie, Femmes et Ecritures., a study of women writers in Algeria.
Mosteghanemi.s novel .Dhakirat al-Jasad. (The Body.s Memory) was published in 1993. This was the first novel to be written in Arabic by a woman writer in Algeria. Mosteghanemi commented: .this fact fills me with horror, not pride. How could I be the first poetess in Arabic, and twenty years later the first novelist writing in Arabic in a country where thousands of women graduate and master Arabic language..
The sequel to .Dhakirat al-Jasad. is .Fawda al-Hawass.
This information was collected from In the House of Silence, autobiographical Essays by Arab women Writers, Edited By Fadia Faqir, Garnet Publishing, United Kingdom. 1998