Ramziya al-Iryani

Ramziya Abbas Al-Eryani or al-Iryani (1954 – November 14, 2013) was a Yemeni novelist, writer, diplomat, and feminist. She was also the niece of the former president Abdul Rahman al-Eryani.

Biography She was born in the village of Eryan in the Ibb Governorate, went to secondary school in Taiz and then studied philosophy at Cairo University earning a bachelor's degree in 1977. She also had a master's degree in Arabic literature. In 1980 she became the first female diplomat to join the Yemeni diplomatic corps. In her political work, she was a tireless supporter of feminism in Yemen and encouraged women to run for political office. Al-Eryani died in 2013 in Berlin during surgery; her body was returned to Sana'a and interred in al-Rahma cemetery. Her first book of short stories La'allahu ya'ud (Maybe He'll Return) was published from Damascus in 1981. Since then, she wrote several more volumes of fiction as well as several children's books. She had also written a book on Yemeni women pioneers called Raidat Yemeniyat (1990). Al-Eryani's short stories have appeared in English translation in an anthology of Arab women writers.

Al-Eryani's writing addresses gender issues in a predominantly patriarchal, Islamic society. She also writes about the importance of education for women in an Arab society. Other themes in her work include Yemeni political struggles of the day.