Salwa Al Neimi

Salwa Al Neimi (born mid-1950s?, Damascus, Syria) is a Syrian journalist and author whose works often focused on themes that were traditionally taboo in Arab culture, notably female sexuality.

Neimi, whose name is spelled al-Nuʿaymī in English transliteration though it is published as Al Neimi, earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Damascus in 1975 before attending the Sorbonne in France, where by her own account she received a DEA (a post-master’s degree roughly equivalent to the American ABD [All But Dissertation]) in Arabic literature. She then worked as a journalist and was noted for an insightful series of interviews of Arab and Western writers, the content of which was first published in the Arabic journals Al-Karmel, Kull al-ʿArab, and Masharef. A collection of her interviews later was published as Sharāktu fī al-khadīʿah (2001; “I Participated in the Deception”), a phrase she borrowed from her interview with French writer Alain Robbe-Grillet. In 1997 Neimi joined the Paris-based Arab World Institute as chief press secretary, continuing to make her home in France with her husband, Khalil Al Neimi, a surgeon, novelist, poet, and travel writer.

Salwa’s collection of short stories, Kitāb al-asrār (2nd ed., 2010; “The Book of Secrets”), reflected both her dislike of hypocrisy and her belief in the liberating power of the written word. In it she explored such matters as sexual experiences outside marriage, difficulties in the relationship of a married couple, and the oppressive nature of life in a traditional society. Those concerns also echoed throughout her several collections of poetry. In Dhahaba alladhīna uḥibbuhum (1999; “The Ones I Love Passed Away”), her poems conveyed the image of a woman struggling against society’s restrictive traditions, a sentiment also prevalent in the poetry of Ajdādī al-qatalah (2001; “My Ancestors, the Assassins”), in which she deplored the heavy weight of traditions and women’s life in the shadows.

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In 2007 Neimi published her first novel, Burhān al-ʿasal (The Proof of the Honey), which caused an international sensation with its frank discussion of female sexuality. The book was banned in many Arab countries, but the outspoken Neimi strongly defended her personal freedom, social values, and political principles. Shibh al-Jazīrah al-ʿArabiyyah (2012; “The Arabian Peninsula”), Neimi’s second major novel, was semiautobiographical, touching on her own mixed religious background; she had a Christian mother and a Muslim father. In it she expressed her concern for Syria’s future, and she alluded to the oppressive regime of Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad and the tragic fate of some of her outspoken friends.