Hadia Hussein’s ‘Riyam and Kafa’

From the International Prize for Arabic Fiction official biography and book description:

Hadia Hussein, an Iraqi writer and novelist living in Canada, was born in 1956. She has published nine novels, six collections of short stories and a work of literary criticism. Her novel After Love (2003) has been translated into English and her collection of short stories And That’s Another Matter (2002) into Serbian. Many of her short stories have been translated into English, Italian and Serbian.

In Riyam and Kafa, an Iraqi seamstress decides to write a novel based on her diaries, giving us an intimate look at the reality of life for women living in Iraq; a world in which they struggle to make their mark while being restricted by values and traditions. The novel, a rich and detailed portrait of the heroine and her family, ultimately deals with the wider dimension of human suffering and the conflict between good and evil.

 Also:

Interview: Iraqi Novelist Hadiya Hussein on Personal and Public Memory