Assia Djebar

Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen (born June 30, 1936), an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with the obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's most famous and influential writers, and was elected to the Académie française on June 16, 2005, the first writer from the Maghreb to achieve such recognition.

She was the first Algerian woman to be accepted at the École Normale Supérieure, an elite college in Paris.

In 1957, she published her first novel, La Soif (The Thirst). (Fearing her father's disapproval, she had it published under the pen name Assia Djebar.) Another, Les Impatients, followed the next year

In 1996 she won the prestigious Neustadt Prize for Contribution to World Literature, and the next year, the Yourcenar Prize.

Cinema
1. La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, 1977
This film combines narrative with documentary to tell the varying stories of different women in Algeria. “Returning to her native region 15 years after the end of the Algerian war, Lila is obsessed by memories of the war for independence that defined her childhood. In dialogue with other Algerian women, she reflects on the differences between her life and theirs.”
2. La Zerda ou les chants de l'oubli, 1979