Nayrouz Qarmout is a journalist, author and women’s rights campaigner. Born in Yarmouk Refugee Camp, Damascus, in 1984, as a Palestinian refugee, she was ‘returned’ to the Gaza Strip at the age of 11 as part of the 1994 Oslo Peace Accord, where she now lives. She has worked in the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, raising awareness of gender issues and promoting the political and economic role of women in policy, law, and the media. She has won a number of prizes including the Creative Women’s Award for her debut collection, the PEN Translates-awarded The Sea Cloak, which was the bestseller at Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019.
In 2021, Qarmout was the English PEN x The Mosaic Rooms Writer in Residence. During her time in London, she wrote ‘Dice’, a piece specially commissioned as part of the residency. ‘Dice‘, translated by Sawad Hussain and Perween Richards, was published on PEN Transmissions for the first time, to coincide with the announcement of Nayrouz Qarmout’s Honorary Membership of English PEN in November 2023.
The PEN community has repeatedly called for an ‘immediate end of all hostilities, the protection of civilians, and a just resolution to the conflict’ between Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. PEN has also urged the United Nations and its Member States ‘to take all necessary steps to broker an immediate ceasefire’.