Ulfat Idilbi

Ulfat Umar Basha Idilbi was born into a cultured Damascene family and witnessed firsthand the French bombardment of Damascus during the Great Syrian Revolt of 1925. Encouraged by her uncle, the poet and scholar Kazim al-Daghastani, she began publishing short stories in 1947, becoming one of the earliest prominent female voices in modern Syrian literature.

Her 1980 masterpiece, Dimashq Ya Basmat al-Huzn (Sabriya: Damascus - Smile of Sadness), translated into multiple languages and adapted into an iconic television series, provided a poignant, feminist indictment of both patriarchal domestic oppression and colonial violence during the 1920s resistance. She received the Syrian Order of Merit in 1990.