Huda al-Daghfaq

Huda Abdullah Al-Daghfaq (; born 24 October 1967) is a Saudi Arabian poet, journalist, and feminist. She supports the removal of male guardianship from women and emphasises the importance of women as social and political decision-makers. Her memoir I Tear the Burqa to See has been described as an expression of the "existential battle" between her poetry and her cultural background.

Biography Al-Daghfaq was born on 24 October 1967. She earned a bachelor's degree in Arabic language from the University of Riyadh in 1989. After graduation she taught in secondary schools, but during this period, because of her poetry she was accused of modernism – which in Saudi Arabia at that time came with accusations of atheism. She published her collection, The Upward Shadow, in 1993. Volumes of her poetry have been translated into several languages. Also a journalist, al-Daghfaq is one of several Saudi women poets who work in that field, with Hailah Abdullah Al-Khalaf citing her as an example alongside Khadeeja al-Amri, Fawziyya Abu Khalid and .

Al-Daghfaq is a prominent Saudi feminist, considering women to be leaders of the Gulf region's movement. She supports the removal of guardianship from women and emphasises the importance of women as social and political decision-makers. At the Jeddah Literary Club, Al-Daghfaq drew controversy as she crossed the division between areas of the meeting segregated by gender and recited her poetry to both men and women.

Reception Su'ad al-Mana said that Al-Daghfaq's writing is part of a tradition of Saudi women poets that began in the 1970s, citing her 1993 collection The Upward Shadow as a significant work in this period. Her works have been compared to those of Iman al-Dabbagh, Ashjan al-Hindi, Sara al-Kathlan, Salwa Khamis, and Latifa Qari. Her work has been compared to that of Fawziyya Abu Khalid, Muhammed al-Dumaini and Ghassan al-Khunazi. Her memoir I Tear the Burqa to See was described by academic Wasfy Yassin Abbas as an expression of the "existential battle" between her poetry and her cultural background.

Selected works

الظل إلى أعلى (The Upward Shadow) – 1993 ريشة لاتطير ، مختارات من ثلاث مجموعاتها شعرية، (A Feather Doesn't Fly) – 2008 أشق البرقع أرى، (I Tear the Burqa to See) – 2012