She graduated from the Syrian University in 1963 with a BA in English Literature and left to Beirut to earn her Master's Degree in Theatre from American University of Beirut. She published her first book of short stories, ‘‘Your Eyes are my Destiny'', in 1962 which witnessed a great success. However, she was lumped at the time with other traditional feminine writers. Her later publications enabled her to move out of the restricted range of feminist and sentimental novels, where she was confined to a wider social, and humanist perspective. When in Beirut, she worked in journalism and in 1965 she published her second collection ìNo Sea in Beirutî. She then traveled around Europe working as a press correspondent and in 1966 she published her third collection ‘‘Foreigner's Nights'' reflecting her experiences. She published her first novel, ‘‘Beirut 75'' in 1974. After the publication of two more novels, ‘‘Beirut Nightmares'' in 1977, which describes life in civil-war-torn Beirut in the mid-1970's, and ‘‘The Eve of Billion'' in 1986, she was referred to as the most prominent modern Arab writer by some critics. In the late 1960's, she married Dr. Bashir Al Daouq and had her only son, Hazim, whom she named after one of her heroes in ‘‘Foreigner's Night''. She later set up her own publishing house where she published most of her books. She also gathered all her articles in a series she called ‘‘Unfinished Works''. So far, she has published 15 books, 9 of which are poetry collections.
