Fatima Daas
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Fatima Daas at the 2022 LiteratureXchange Festival in Aarhus, Denmark
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| Born | 1995 Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Language | French |
| Alma mater | Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis |
Fatima Daas (born 1995) is a French writer.[1] Her debut novel, The Last One (French: La Petite Dernière), follows the life of a young Muslim woman as she explores her sexuality, religion, and relationships while living in Clichy-sous-Bois, a suburb of Paris.[2]
Daas was born in Saint-Germain-en-Laye to an Algerian immigrant family.[3] Her family settled in the working-class Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois and she spent much of her childhood in the surrounding department of Seine-Saint-Denis.[3] Daas is the youngest of three daughters and the only French-born.[4] Daas and her family are Muslims.[5] Daas is a lesbian and describes herself as an intersectional feminist.[5]
Daas attended Lycée Alfred Nobel. As a lycéenne, Daas began writing and attended writing workshops led by the French mystery writer, Tanguy Viel.[1] She went on to enroll at Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis where she completed a Master's degreeincreative writing.[6] As a part of her coursework, Daas wrote a novel over a period of 18 months that ultimately became The Last One.[4]
The Last One was first published in French on August 20, 2020 when Daas was 25 years old[3] and subsequently translated into English by Lara Vergnaud for publication on November 23, 2021.[7] Daas describes the novel as a work of autofiction as the life of the main character, who is also named Fatima Daas, parallels Daas' own.[4] The book explores the intersection of the protagonist's identity as a queer Muslim woman studying and living in an immigrant-majority suburb where her identities both contradict and compliment one another. When discussing the seemingly conflicted nature of the character – and Daas' own – identities, Daas stated: "I didn’t suffer because of who I am. I was never ashamed of being a lesbian, but I was ashamed of the loneliness of being unable to talk about it. I wanted to transmit this feeling in my writing by inhabiting a character that refuses to choose, despite the external pressures of the world".[5]
Fatima Daas is not Daas' real name. When asked, Daas has refused to share her real name to avoid involving her family in her career.[4] Daas has stated that a pseudonym allows her to reinvent herself and, in turn, explore multiple identities through her work.[4]
She cites the work and careers of Marguerite Duras, Abdellah Taïa, Athena Farrokhzad, Faïza Guène, Mehdi Charef, and Annie Ernaux as inspiration for her own writing.[5] References to Duras and Ernaux appear throughout The Last One.[4] At Paris 8, while working on The Last One, Daas met French filmmaker and novelist, Virginie Despantes, when the latter came to deliver a talk; Despantes encouraged Daas to continue working on her novel as it touched on subject matters rarely featured in French novels.[4] Despantes went on to praise the published novel and offered a book endorsement that reads: "Fatima Daas carves out a portrait, like a patient, attentive sculptor…or like a mine searcher, aware that each word could make everything explode".[7]
