Saida Menebhi

Saida Menebhi
Born1952 (1952)
Marrakesh
DiedDecember 11, 1977(1977-12-11) (aged 24–25)
Casablanca
Cause of deathhunger strike

Saida Menebhi (1952 in Marrakesh – 11 December 1977 in Casablanca) was a Moroccan poet, high school teacher, and activist with the Marxist revolutionary movement Ila al-Amam. In 1975, she, together with five other members of the movement, was sentenced for seven years of imprisonment for anti-state activity. On November 8, 1977, inside the jail in Casablanca, she participated in a collective hunger strike, and died on the 35th day of the strike at Avicenne Hospital.[1][2]

Her poetry, collected and published first in 1978, and later again in 2000, is considered a prime example of Moroccan revolutionary and feminist literature. She wrote in French. Translations of a selection of her poems to English were published for the first time in 2021 by See Red Press.[3]

  1. ^ Regina, Giusy (12 December 2011). "Marocco: 34° anniversario della morte di Saida Menebhi, icona d'attivismo" (in Italian). ArabPress. Retrieved 13 August 2015.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "11 décembre 1977 : décès de Saïda Menebhi, « la martyre du peuple marocain »" (in French). Diversgens. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  3. ^ Prison, Poetry, Martyrdom: Saida Menebhi and the Moroccan Years of Lead