Assia Djebar (b. Cherchell, Algeria, 1936 – d. Paris, France, 2015), whose real name is Fatima-Zohra Imalayene, was a Berber French academic novelist, translator, and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. She studied in Tunisia and then lived in Paris from 1980. In 1995, she pursued her professional career in the United States, where she taught as a full professor at Louisiana State University and directed the Center for French and Francophone Studies. In 2001, she left Louisiana to become a full professor at New York University. She was awarded the 1996 Neustadt International Prize for Literature for the entire body of her work and was often named as a contender for the Nobel Prize for Literature.
