Latifa al-Zayyat

Latifa al-Zayyat (; 8 August 1923 – 10 September 1996) was an Egyptian activist and writer, most famous for her novel The Open Door, which won the inaugural Naguib Mahfouz Medal for Literature.

Biography Al Zayyat was born in Dumyat, Damietta, Egypt, on 8 August 1923. She was arrested and detained in Hadra prison in 1949, during the student demonstrations against the British occupation of the country. During the same period she worked for the leftist magazine Al Tali'a as its cultural editor. Al Zayyat was a professor of English at the Girls College of Ain Shams University and the chair of the department of English at the same university.

Tribute On 8 August 2015, Google dedicated a Doodle to the writer for the 92nd anniversary of her birth. The Doodle reached all the countries of the Arab World.