woman through literary means. In 1973, after facing a serious illness, Alifa's husband allowed her once more to write and publish her work. She continued on to publish a collection of short stories and two novels beginning with the short story "My World of the Unknown," for which she gained initial popularity. Alifa Rifaat's husband died in 1979. Although she travelled across provincial Egypt in accordance with her husband's transfers for work she never left Egypt until after his death. She continued on to make the [hajj], the sacred pilgrimage to Mecca, in 1981 and travelled to multiple European and Arab states including England, Turkey, Germany, Morocco, and Austria. Throughout her life Fatimah Rifaat became a member of the Federation of Egyptian Writers, the Short-Story Club, and the Dar al-Udaba (Egypt). She also attended the First International Women's Book Fair (London, England) in 1984 where she spoke about the rights of women in Islam and the topic of polygamy. In 1984 Fatimah Rifaat received the Excellency Award from the Modern Literature Assembly. Fatimah Rifaat Died at the age of 65 in January 1996. She left behind three sons and a body of over 100 works that have been translated into multiple languages and have been produced for television. Some of her works have also been read on BBC. Literary themes and translations Alifa Rifaat wrote in Arabic throughout her literary career. Her style, though focusing more on romance in the beginning of her career, later shifted to social critique after she met translator Denys John-Davies. Denys also persuaded her to write in a more colloquial style of Arabic, which although being a more accessible form of writing to the Egyptian population, was also during this period a less desired form of writing than the formal style. Her novels and short stories have been translated into multiple languages including English, German, Dutch, and Swedish. The most popular English translation of her work is of her collection of short stories, Distant View of a Minaret and Other Short Stories, which is translated by Denys Johnson-Davies. Fatimah Rifaat, unlike the prominent Egyptian Feminist Nawal El Saadawi, focused her writing on women in traditional Islamic roles. In her autobiography Fatimah describes her father's lack of affection towards her as a possible root of her exploration of the needs and desires of men in terms of women. She continues on to relate that through her