Hanan Al-Shaykh (Arabic: حنان الشيخ) is a Lebanese journalist, novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Born into a conservative Shia' Muslim family, she received her primary education in Beirut and later she attended the American College for Girls in Cairo. She began her journalism career in Egypt before returning to Lebanon. Her short stories and novels feature primarily female characters in the face of conservative religious traditions set against the backdrop of political tensions and instability of the Lebanese civil war.