With the publication of her fictional works, Ahdaf Soueif is among the very few Arab authors who write in English and have succeeded in gaining world-wide fame.

Her work has been translated into Arabic as well as Dutch, French, German, and Italian, gaining her a recognition achieved by only few other writers in the Arab world. Among the most well-known Arab men of her profession also writing in English are the Lebanese Jibran Khalil Jibran with his worldwide fame both in the English-speaking world as well as its Arabic speaking counterpart. The Palestinian authors Jabra Ibrahim Jabra and Fawaz Turki, as well as the Egyptian writer Waguih Ghali are the other three main contributors to the group. However, the Egyptian feminist Nawal el Saadawi is generally credited with being the first Arab woman writer to catch the attention of Western readers with her al-Wajh al-ari lilmar'a...