Hanifa Deen is an Australian writer, of Pakistani ancestry. She won the

New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards The New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards, also known as the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, were first awarded in 1979. They are among the richest literary awards in Australia. Notable prizes include the Christina Stead Prize for Fiction, th ...

— Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in 1996, and her book, ''The Jihad Seminar'', was short-listed for the 2008

Human Rights Awards Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedality, bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex Human brain, brain. This has enabled the development of ad ...

— Literature Non-Fiction Award.

Biography

She has described how one of her grandfathers was a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

who jumped ship in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, while the other was a

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

small business man who came in the wake of the Afghan camel drivers, who helped to facilitate access to the Australian interior. Her non-fiction books have focused on issues concerning

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

. Her first book, ''Caravanserai'', portrayed the lives of Australian Muslims. Her second book, ''Broken Bangles'', focused on Muslim women in South Asia (

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

). ''The Crescent and the Pen'' described the author's journey on the trail of

Taslima Nasreen Taslima Nasrin (born 25 August 1962) is a Bangladeshi-Swedish writer, physician, feminist, secular humanist, and activist. She is known for her writing on women's oppression and criticism of religion. Some of her books are banned in Bangladesh ...

, the author of the controversial novel ''

Lajja Lajja may refer to: * ''Lajja'' (novel), a 1993 novel by Taslima Nasrin * ''Lajja'' (2001 film), an Indian Hindi-language social drama film * ''Lajja'' (TV series), an Indian television series * Lajja Shankar Pandey, a fictional villain played ...

'' ("Shame"), after she fled Bangladesh for Europe. Deen's 2008 book, ''The Jihad Seminar'' is about Melbourne's first religious hate speech case, (UWA Press). ''Ali Abdul vs The King'' was published in 2011 by UWA publishers. In 2013 ''The Crescent and the Pen'' was extensively rewritten and released as ''On the Trail of Taslim in paperback by Indian Ocean Press.

Awards and honours

Caravansserai won the

— Ethnic Affairs Commission Award in 1996, and The Jihad Seminar was short-listed for the 2008

— Literature Non-Fiction Award.

Publications

* ''Caravanserai : journey among Australian Muslims'', 1995 * ''Broken bangles'', 1998 * ''The crescent and the pen : the strange journey of Taslima Nasreen'', 2006 * ''The jihād seminar'', 2008 * ''Ali Abdul v. the king : Muslim stories from the dark days of white Australia'', 2011 * ''On the trail of Taslima'', 2013

References

External links

Author's websiteFive generations: the story of Hanifa Deen's family
(National Archives of Australia)
Editor of "Sultana's Dream" first online magazine produced and written by Australian Muslim women.

Hanifa Deen on the Muslim fatigue (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deen, Hanifa Living people Australian writers Australian Muslims Australian people of Kashmiri descent Australian people of Punjabi descent Australian writers of Pakistani descent Year of birth missing (living people)