Faleeha Hassan

Faleeha Hassan has lived a life shaped by war. Born in 1967 during the Iraqi-Kurdish conflict, she was in middle school when the Iran-Iraq War began in 1980, closing her school for eight years. To process the relentless turmoil around her, she turned to poetry, writing about love, family, womanhood, and hope.

In 1991, Hassan became the first woman in Najaf to publish a poetry book, *Because I Am a Girl*. Its raw portrayal of wartime life and bold cover image of an uncovered woman’s head made her a literary sensation, earning her the title “the Maya Angelou of Iraq.” Over the years, she published 15 more poetry collections, plays, novels, and short stories, translated into 14 languages.

Fleeing escalating dangers, Hassan resettled in New Jersey in 2012. There, she taught herself English and continues to write prolifically in her adopted language. “In Iraq, it is hard to be a woman who writes. In America, it is hard to be a woman in a hijab,” she says. “But if I write, teach, and uplift other women, maybe equality and acceptance will come. Maybe there can be peace.”