Najlaa Atallah, a feminist writer and activist, was born in Gaza City in 1987. She obtained a BA in Architectural Engineering and an MA degrees in Engineering Project Management from the Islamic University in Gaza. She and her family now reside in Reykjavik, Iceland, after she moved there to study gender and human rights at the University of Iceland. There, she works as an architect and manages a small social enterprise—Gaza Company—that supports vulnerable women in Gaza.

Najlaa published her first novel, I Loved Her So, at the age of fifteen, and her second novel, A Cup of Coffee, was published by the Palestinian Ministry of Media. Her debut short story collection, Croke (2012) was the winner of the Najati Sidqi Competition in Ramallah, presented by the Palestinian Minister of Culture. Najlaa has also published two Young Adult novels, with The Picture listed as one of the best 100 books in the Arab world in 2009. In 2013 she participated in a short story festival in Morocco, representing Palestine. Her short story “The Whore of Gaza” features in English translation in The Book of Gaza, edited by Atef Abu Saif (Comma Press, 2014), while her diary entries from the 2014 Gaza War were translated into a number of languages. (updated 01/2024)

Read Attallah’s entry in AGNI’s Dispatches from Palestine.