Ahlam Mosteghanemi

Mosteghanemi's family was originally from Constantine, in eastern Algeria. Her father, Mohammed Cherif Mosteghanemi, was an Algerian nationalist, who was imprisoned following the 1945 Sétif riots, wherein two of his brothers were killed. After her father's release in 1947, the family relocated to Tunis, Tunisia, where Mosteghanemi was born in 1953, and where her father continued his activism and support of Algerian independence. After Algeria attained independence in 1962, her father took on prominent positions in the government of Ahmed Ben Bella. Following the 1965 Boumediene coup d'état that removed Ben Bella from power, her father suffered a mental breakdown, and was sent to a mental hospital in Algiers, even after his return from the institution, his continued mental struggles and the continued political turmoil in Algeria left him resentful, confused, and disillusioned. [2]

Following the coup d’état, and the subsequent hospitalization of her father, Ahlem, as the eldest sibling, took up the responsibility of providing for her family as a radio host.[3]At the age of 17, she became popular in Algeria with the poetic daily show Hammassat (Whispers) on national radio. While publishing in 1973, Ala Marfa al Ayam (To the Days’ Haven), Ahlem also became the first woman to publish a compilation of poetry in Arabic. It was followed in 1976 by the release of Al Kitaba fi Lahdat Ouray (The Writing in a Moment of Nudity). At the time, she was part of the first generation to acquire the right to study in Arabic after more than a century of prohibition by the French colonization.[4]

Ahlam studied in the Arab school for girls to open after Algeria's independence, gaining proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic. She has said that 'Arabic was my father’s choice, not mine; he wanted me to avenge him, as he was deprived of learning it by the French colonizer, who declared war on the Arabic language as a way of stripping Algerians of their identity... For my father, choosing Arabic was a conscious political decision, but for me, it was my father’s will that I was keen on fulfilling'.[5]

But, at the time, the Algerian society was rebuilding its identity and recovering from a colonial past that resulted in the death of over a million and a half. It was not prepared to see a girl express herself freely on subjects such as love and women's rights. It was even less prepared to see her do it in the sacred Arabic language. This is where Ahlem's battle begins against sexism.[4] Although women had fought alongside men during the revolution, in the postwar period they were generally relegated to their traditional roles;[6] they were denied the freedom to express themselves and to aspire to success. After she received her B.A in Literature, the board of directors of the University of Algiers refused her enrolment for a Masters under the pretense that her freedom of expression had a negative impact on students. She was also expelled from the Union of Algerian Writers for not conforming to the political line of her time.[4]

In Algiers, Mosteghanemi met Georges El Rassi, a Lebanese journalist, who was preparing a thesis about “Arabization and cultural conflicts in independent Algeria”. They were married in 1976 in Paris and settled there. Ahlam pursued her university studies at the Sorbonne, where in 1982 she obtained a doctorate in Sociology. Her thesis explored the misunderstanding and malaise between both sexes in the Algerian society. The doctorate was under the guidance of Jacques Berques, an eminent orientalist, who also wrote the preface of her thesis (published in 1985 by L’Harmattan as Algérie, femmes et écriture). During the fifteen years she spent in Paris, Ahlam contributed to various magazines, and during time stolen from her new role as a mother of three young boys, wrote fragments of what turned out after four years to be a novel. Ahlam justified her transition from poetry to prose by saying: «When we lose a love, one writes a poem, when we lose our homeland, one writes a novel». Algeria is never far from her mind: «There are countries that we live in and countries that live in us».[4]

Mosteghanemi in 2000

Once she settled down in 1993, in Lebanon, she presents her novel “Zakirat el Jassad” (Memory of the Flesh), to the editor of the renowned publishing house Dar Al Adab. Excited, the editor will declare: « this is a bomb». It will be the revelation. This novel, written in a style highly poetic and with political bravado, will have a phenomenal success throughout the Arab world. The love story is set between an armless painter and the daughter of his former commander encountered in Paris 25 years after the war. The novel evokes the disappointment of the post-war generation, which echoes the disappointment of a generation of Arabs. In a famous letter to the author, Nizar Kabbani, the great contemporary Arab poet, declared: « This novel gave me vertigo; had I been asked, I would have signed it».[7] The director Youssef Chahine, winner of the Palme d'Or, purchases the rights to the film shortly before his death. Meanwhile, the famous Hollywood director Mustafa Akkad said that one of his dreams was to adapt “Zakirat el Jassad” into a movie. Moved by his reading, President Ben Bella will say from his exile: «Ahlem is an Algerian sun that illuminates the Arab world». To date, more than one million copies have been sold across the Arabic-speaking world (excluding pirated editions which vastly outnumber the legal editions in the Arab world). This novel also has the merit to reconcile the Arab reader with the Arabic language and reading.[4]

Ahlem continues her literary career by giving two sequels to her novel: “Fawda el Hawas” (The Chaos of Senses) in 1997 and “Aber Sareer” (Bed Hopper) in 2003. Each part of the trilogy, now a classic, is a bestseller in its own right throughout the Arab world.[8] In 1998, Ahlem receives the Naguib Mahfouz literary prize for “Memory of the Flesh". This prize was founded by the American University of Cairo, which will translate the novel in English and publish it in 2000. The jury will say about the author: «Ahlem is a light which shines in thick darkness. She was able to get out of the linguistic exile in which French colonialism had relegated the Algerian intellectuals».[9] In 2010, "Nessyan.com" (The Art of Forgetting) is published. It is a break up manual for women, which will bring Ahlem closer to a female audience (Nessyan.com's humorous reference on the cover is that it is banned from sale to men). In 2012, Ahlem's latest novel, El Aswad Yalikou Biki (Black Suits You so Well) is published. The novel confirms Ahlem's status as a major Arab novelist. The story evokes the struggle of a young Algerian teacher whose father, a singer, is killed in the nineties by the terrorists who stand against any form of art and joy in society. Singing at her father's funeral, the girl, previously forbidden to speak to, carries away the crowd with her dreamy voice. Defying terrorism, she embarks in a singing career. She then has to flee her country and during her exile she meets a wealthy and mysterious man who tries to seduce her. The novel addresses the challenge of standing up not only to terrorism but also to the crushing power of money and the media.

For over 35 years, Ahlem's contribution enriched the Arabic literary scene. Furthermore, through her writings she led the fight against corruption, injustice, totalitarian regimes, fundamentalism, new forms of colonization and the denigration of women's right. With deep admiration for an Algerian poet, Ahlam Mosteghanemi established the Malek Haddad Literary Prize in 2001 for the best Algerian writer.[2] While interviewed in June 2001 she voiced her worries about the lack of Arabic literature in Algeria and was in hopes that the Malek Haddad Literary Prize would encourage more to write in Arabic.[2] Just like Ahlam, Malek Haddad was also from Constantine, Algeria.[10] Although he gave up writing, his reasoning was due to him not being allowed to write in Arabic.[11] Ahlam Mosteghanemi quoted Hadda throughout "Memory in Flesh" and loved what he stood for.[12] Her quotes, on love as well as politics, are widely used by the Arab public.

1. Zakirat el Jassad (Memory in the Flesh/The Bridges of Constantine) - Published by Dar al adab, Beirut, 1993, 34 printed editions. Considered by critics as a turning point in Arabic literature.
2. Fawda el Hawas (Chaos of the Senses) - Published by Dar al adab in Beirut 1997, 30 printed editions.
3. Aber Sareer (Bed Hopper) - Published by Dar al adab in Beirut 2003, 22 printed editions.
4. El Aswad Yalikou Biki (Black Suits You so Well) - Published by Hachette-Antoine in Beirut 2012

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

1. Academic research for her doctoral thesis, Paris 1982, supervised by Jacques Berque.[13]

UNESCO has printed all her work in Braille for blind readers.