When the Algerian war broke out in 1954, her family's home in Tunisia became a central meeting point for resistance fighters allied to the Algerian People's Party. After Independence in 1962, the family returned to Algeria where Ahlam was sent to the country's first Arabic-language school. She earned a B.A. in Arabic Literature from the University of Algiers in 1973, and also published her first poetry collection, “Ala' Marfa Al Ayam” (The Harbour of Days) In 1982, she received her Ph.D. in Sorbonne in Paris-her thesis was subsequently published by L'Harmattan as “Algérie, Femmes et l'Ecriture”). She moved to Algeria in the late 1970's. She married a Lebanese journalist and moved to Beirut where she published her first novel, “Dhakiratu Al Jassad” (Memory in the Flesh and Chaos of the Senses) in 1993. To date, the novel has sold over a million copies across the Arabic-speaking world and has also been translated into English. Ahlem Mosteghanemi currently lives in Lebanon, with her husband and three children.