Hatoon al-Fassi

Hatoon al-Fassi was born in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. She is a historian specialising in women’s history at the King Saud University, Riyadh, History department. She is currently a visiting professor at the International Affairs department of Qatar University.

Al-Fassi received her PhD from the University of Manchester. Her primary interest and research activities focus on women’s history, including ancient and Islamic history, modern women’s issues and Islamic rights, gender studies, women’s religious rights, women writers and history of the Arabian Peninsula and Human Rights.

She is a regular columnist for the al-Riyadh national newspaper in Arabic. She has been featured and interviewed in many documentaries, major networks and press, regionally and internationally.

Al-Fassi has published three books and more than 15 articles in Arabic and English. Her most recent book is Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia: Nabataea, published by Archaeopress, Oxford in 2007, in English, and she contributed the chapter ‘Women in Eastern Arabia: Myth and Representation’ in Gulf Women, edited by Amira Sonbol and published by Syracuse University Press 2012.

In May 2012, Al-Fassi was honoured as a Knight in the Order of National Merit by the French President.