Biography

Abdellah Taïa (Arabic: عبد الله الطايع; born 1973) is a Moroccan writer and filmmaker who writes in the French language and has been based in Paris since 1999. He has published eight novels, many of them heavily autobiographical. His books have been translated into Basque, Dutch, German, English, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Danish and Arabic.Described by Interview Magazine as a "literary transgressor and cultural paragon," Taïa became the first openly gay Arab writer in 2006, and, as of 2014, he remains the only openly homosexual Moroccan writer or filmmaker. His first movie, Salvation Army, is widely considered to have given Arab cinema "its first gay protagonist." Since his coming-out, according to one source, Taïa "has become an iconic figure in his homeland of Morocco and throughout the Arab world, and a beacon of hope in a country where homosexuality is illegal."