Rabab al-Kadhimi

Rabab Al-Kadhimi (, also Rabab Al-Kazimi; 30 July 1918 – 1998) was an Iraqi feminist poet and dental surgeon, who is considered a pioneer of women's poetry.

Early life and career Rabab al-Kadhimi was born in Cairo on 23 August 1918. Her father was the Iraqi poet . Her Tunisian mother, Aisha, died when she was ten years old. Her father encouraged her interest in poetry and she published widely in Egyptian periodicals in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of these writings were so political that both she and her father were threatened with deportation by the Egyptian authorities.

Legacy In literature, al-Kadhimi is considered a pioneer of Iraqi women's poetry. The first works to be collated and sold by al-Kadhimi were published in 1969. However she had already been featured on 'Contemporary Poetesses of Iraq' in the Islamic Review in 1950.

Highlighting her lack of recognition as a woman, she wrote:"My act of writing is my woundAnd my crime is my knowledge"