Fatima Naoot

Fatima Naoot (; born 18 September 1964) is an Egyptian poet, translator and journalist. She has written 40 books, including 10 collections of poetry, and a novel, and is the chief editor of the literary magazine Qaws Qazah (The Rainbow). She has translated many novels and anthologies from English into Arabic. She is also a columnist and has written articles for Nesf El Donya, Al-Masry Al-Youm, and Youm7.

Prior to her literary career, Naoot worked as an architect for 10 years as she was a graduate of Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University. In 2016, Naoot was sentenced to three years in prison for posting a message on Facebook critical of the ritual slaughter of sheep during the Islamic feast Eid al-Adha. On appeal, her sentence was reduced to six months.

Early life and education Fatima Sayyid Muhammad Hasan Naoot was born on 18 September 1964 in Cairo, Egypt. She earned a degree in architecture from the Faculty of Engineering of Ain Shams University in Cairo in 1987. Following her graduation, she worked as an architect for Sabbour Consultants for 10 years.

Literary career Naoot left her architecture career in the late 1990s and started writing poetry, translating, and working as a journalist. She is the chief editor of the literary magazine Qaws Qazah (The Rainbow) and the UAE news website.

Naoot has written 18 books, including seven collections of poetry. She has also written essays and literary criticism and translated many novels and anthologies from English into Arabic. In the 2000s, Naoot wrote multiple volumes of poetry. Her fifth volume, A Bottle of Glue, won first prize for Arabic literature at the 2006 Hong Kong Literary Festival and was later translated into English and Chinese. She has also translated the short stories of Virginia Woolf and John Ravenscroft, works by Philip Roth, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Chinua Achebe, and a volume of American and English poetry. Following her post, social media trended with outrage towards what was described as her blasphemy. A lawsuit was filed against her in December 2014 by three lawyers. Prosecutors took the case and she was charged with contempt of Islam, disturbing public peace, and spreading sectarian strife. In an article, she denied that her intention was to insult religion. The case was brought to trial in January 2015. In January 2016, Naoot was sentenced Naoot to three years imprisonment and given a EGP 20,000 fine. She appealed the ruling and, in November 2016, an appeals court reduced her sentence to a six-month suspended sentence.

Naoot was a candidate for the Egyptian parliament.

Selected publications Poetry Finger's Pat, 2001 One Centimeter Away From the Ground, 2002 A Longitudinal Section in the Memory, 2003 Upon a Woman's Palm, 2004 A Head Split with an Ax, 2005 Pockets Weighed with Stones, 2005 The Temple of Roses, 2007 A Bottle of Glue, 2008

Translations A Head Split with an Ax, Egypt, 2004 (American and Britain collection of poetry translated into Arabic) Pockets Weighed with Stones, Egypt, 2005 (A book on Virginia Woolf including an Arabic translation of her 1920 novella An Unwritten Novel) Killing Rabbits (translated into Arabic), Egypt, 2005 (A collection of short stories by John Ravenscroft translated into Arabic)

Cultural criticism Writing with Chalk (Essays about subjects including language, translation, liberty, arts and architecture)

Anthology Hammurabi's Sorrows, Egypt, 2003