Born on 5 August 1954 in
Nedroma, she went to primary school in Morocco before attending secondary school in
Oran (1969–1975). From an early age, she was attracted to French literature, discovering the works of
Baudelaire and
Victor Hugo in her father's library. She started translating the books she liked best into Arabic. She graduated in literature from the
University of Oran in 1979 before earning a doctorate in
Damascus in 1990. She explained that while her poems had each had a story to tell, she had always been tempted to write novels but it was only in 2010 that she finally began to do so. ==Personal life==