Hatoon al-Fassi was born in Makkah and is a Saudi historian specialising in women’s history. She is an Associate Professor and a graduate of the University of Manchester, UK. She was part of the faculty for 26 years at King Saud University, Riyadh, and currently, she is a faculty member at the Department of International Affairs, Qatar University. She is also the General Coordinator of the Baladi Initiative for empowering Saudi women in the public sphere, and is a driving factor behind women’s participation in the suffrage since 2004.
She writes a column in al-Riyadh daily national newspaper and is a regular commentator on Saudi women for the national and international media.
Al-Fassi has published several books and over 20 peer-reviewed articles in Arabic and English in her areas of interest. In 2010 her article on Makkan (Mecan) Women’s Image in Biography Books (9th Century H/15th CE), appeared in Femme et Féminisme dans les literatures Méditerraéenne et Arabe, Nancy. And in January 2014, the book Arab Feminisms: Gender and Equality in the Middle East was published by I.B. Tauris, with a chapter on Is there a Saudi Feminism? by the author.
In 2012, she was decorated as a Knight in the order of National Merit, Chevalier dans l’Ordre National de Merité by the President of the Republic of France.
Al-Fassi is a proud mother of two, Ajwaad (11) and ZeinalSharaf (9).
