Nadine Attallah

Lebanese poet and activist who pioneered Arab women's literary movements in the mid-20th century

Nadine Attallah (1918-2001) was a Beirut-born poet whose work challenged societal norms through her exploration of female identity in Arab literature. A graduate of the American University of Beirut, she became the first Arab woman to publish a collection of feminist poetry in 1943 with L'Écho des Femmes. Her verses blended classical Arabic forms with modernist themes, addressing topics like female circumcision and marital oppression that were previously unspoken in public discourse.

Her 1950s Women's Letters series - 12 published volumes of epistolary poetry - became clandestine bestsellers across the Arab world. These works used the metaphor of letters to represent women's silenced voices, with lines like 'My pen is a dagger unsheathed against the veil of silence.' Attallah's 1961 establishment of Beirut's House of Words provided a safe space for female writers to publish, leading to the first Arab women's literary journal Al-Mara' al-Kutub.

Though censored in Syria and Egypt, her work influenced later generations of Arab feminists. The United Nations cited her 1968 essay Women's Words as Weapons in its 1975 report on gender equality. Today her papers are archived at the Doha Center for Women's Studies, where her typewriter and manuscripts are displayed. Her most famous poem We Are the Unwritten remains a staple in Arabic literature courses globally.