Colette Khoury

Colette Khoury
Native name	Colette Khoury (Arabic,كوليت خوري)
Born	1937 Bab Tuma, Damascus, Syria
Occupation	Writer, Professor, Poet, Member of Parliament
Nationality	Syrian
Education	B.A. in French Literature
Alma mater	Damascus University
Notable works	Days With Him
Relatives	Fares al-Khoury, grandfather Suhail al-Khoury, father

Colette Khoury (Arabic,كوليت خوري) (also written as Kulit Khuri, Colette al al-Khuri, Colette Khuri) is a Syrian novelist and poet, born in 1931, who is also the granddaughter of former Syrian Prime Minister Faris al-Khoury. Khoury graduated from Damascus University with a bachelor's degree in French literature and she received a diploma from the school of literature in Beirut. Khoury's notability stirs from her work in politics and literature. Her work as a writer focuses on love and erotica, a subject that was previously taboo in Syrian culture.

Colette was born into a notable family, as her grandfather, Faris al-Khoury is known as a hero for his resistance to the French. In addition, her father had been minister for village and town affairs. Khoury was also very patriotic, as she wrote several collections of stories about the 1973 October War, also known as the Yom Kippur War one of which was called "Luminous Days" (1984).

Khoury was a pioneer of Arab feminism, and wrote angry stories in the 1950s about men and their selfishness. Khoury's career began in 1957 and has spanned more than 6 decades. Her literary career began with the publication of a collection of poems in French entitled "Vingt Ans" (Beirut, 1958). In it Khoury expressed her discontent with social constraints and the emptiness and aimlessness of her life; she also described her attempts to find salvation in love. Much of Khoury's work stemmed from her desire to avoid blatant retaliation; writing was the best and only way she could express herself. Khoury dedicated her work to immersing herself in the female psyche, particularly defending women's right to love. Khoury once said, "Since I always felt the need to express what was welling up inside me...the need to protest, the need to scream...and since I didn't want to scream with a knife, I screamed with my fingers and became a writer." Many of Khoury's stories covered topics like love and erotica, particularly from a female's perspective. Khoury has written more than 20 novels, as well as many political and literary articles.

In 1959, she shocked the Arab world with a novel in which she wrote openly about love; this breakthrough novel Ayyam Maahou (Days With Him) was the first time a woman had audaciously written about a subject considered taboo in conservative Syrian society.Ayyam Maahou was inspired by a love affair with the legendary Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani. Colette created a strong woman in her story whose love was not so overpowering that it blinded her or made her weak, in order to maintain the image of a strong, female leader. In the story, the protagonist and narrator, Rim, against society and her family, as she tries to develop her personal identity. While Rim's parents died when she was young and thus never could dominate her adult life, her father's domineering presence still haunts her after he has passed. Rim is also disgusted by the institution of marriage in its traditional form. In the story, she says forcefully, "No! I was not born only to learn cooking and then to marry, bear children, and die! If this is the rule in my country, I will be the exception. I do not want to marry!"(22)

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