Rana Kabbani

Rana Kabbani (

Born in 1958 in Damascus, to Sabah Qabbani, Her paternal uncle was the renowned poet Nizar Qabbani. Her maternal family were also from a distinguished background: Kabbani's mother, Maha, was the niece of Said al-Ghazzi, former Prime Minister of Syria.^[2] In particular, Kabbani was influenced by her maternal grandmother Salwa Ghazzi, suffragette and pioneering feminist from an landowning liberal educated patrician family.^[3]

Kabbani spent her childhood and young adulthood in

Kabbani married Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish twice - in 1976 and then again in 1978. They lived together in Beirut during the civil war; in Paris, and in Sidi Bou Said in Tunisia. They had no children together and divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married the British journalist Patrick Seale, and they had two children, Alexander and Yasmine Seale.^{[citation needed]}

Writing career

Kabbani began writing at an early age. She worked as an art critic in Paris, and later moved to London to work as a publisher's editor. Her first book, Europe's Myths of Orient: Devise and Rule, was published in 1985. In it, she evaluated orientalist perspectives and narratives, specifically focusing on erotic stereotypes and sexualization of the "exotic" in literature and painting.^[1] The work was translated into Arabic, Dutch, German, Turkish. It is taught at universities, and has never been out of print.

After the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, there was a rise in anti-Muslim sentiment, which prompted Kabbani to write Letter to Christendom in 1989.^[4]

Kabbani's other works include her translations from the Arabic of Mahmoud Darweesh's 'Sand and Other Poems' (1985) and her editorship of The Passionate Nomad: Diaries of Isabelle Eberhardt (1987).^[1]

Kabbani has written for The Independent, The International Herald Tribune, The New Statesman, British Vogue, The Guardian. In 2011, she wrote about Syria in articles such as "Can Syrians Dare to Hope?"^[5] She is active on Twitter, which has led to controversy, as she is of a radical stance and uses brash language, in order to highlight political and social issues.^{[citation needed]} She has been a fund raiser and a spokesperson for British charities that raise money for Syrian refugees, as well as for autism and mental illness. She is trilingual in Arabic, French and English, and has travelled extensively in Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Russia, the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Latin America.^{[citation needed]}

Works

• Europe's Myths of Orient: Devise and Rule, London: Pandora, 1986.
  OCLC 70785782
• Women in Muslim society, University College, Cork. Department of Sociology. 1992.
  OCLC 877240672
• Letter to Christendom, London: Virago, cop. 1989.
  OCLC 491449858