Sunday, April 15, 2007

Layla `Usayran, the Lebanese novelist, has died. In the late 1960s, she joined the Fath movement and received military training in Jordan. (Read her autobiographical account in her book Shara'it Mulawwanah (Colored Strips)). She maintained her ties to Fath even when her husband, Amin Al-Hafidh, was designated as prime minister in 1973. I always used to read news about her with great interest: I used to think that my late father (who was not a feminist) had only one female friend: Layla `Usayran. I used to feel that the two really connected (I mean innocently in case any relatives are reading this): their phone conversations were always tender and affectionate.