Hessa al-Rifa'i

Hessa al-Rifa'i (Arabic: حصة الرفاعي) (born 1947) is a folklorist and poet from Kuwait.

Biography

Al-Rifa'i was born in Kuwait City in 1947. She studied for a BA in Arabic at Cairo University.

Since 1982, al-Rifa'i has worked as a professor in the Department of Arabic Language at Kuwait University. She lives in Kuwait. She studied has studied their musical structure, demonstrating that they follow Arabic melodic structures. She has also studied the movement of Arabic musical traditions across the Mediterranean to Andalusia. As well as the musical heritage of sea-shanties, al-Rifa'i has studied the cultural practices that go alongside: for example women performing rituals, such as placing a bar of hot iron in the sea, to ensure the safe return of fishermen. She has worked on the legacy of the folk-poet Zaid Al-Harb.

Poetry Al-Rifa'i is a poet herself and has published four books of poetry.