Miral al-Tahawi was born in 1968 in Gazirat Sa’du, Egypt. Her parents are members of a Bedouin tribe and belong to the society’s elite. Al-Tahawi studied Arabic Language and Literature and worked as a teachers’ representative at the University of Cairo. She was involved with an Islamist Brotherhood, from which she later distanced herself. Her novels, “Al-Hiba” (1996; t: The tent) and “Al-Badingana al-zarqa'” (1998; t: The blue aubergine), have both appeared in German translation. The works are narrated in the first-person, a device of choice for feminist writers since the nineteen fifties. Her third novel, “Naqarat al-dhibaa” (t: The traces of gazellas) was published in Cairo in 2002 and was awarded the Prize of the Cairo Book Fair in the same year. She lives with her husband and son in Cairo and in her native village.
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