Naima el Bezaz

(Morocco, 1974) her motto is: ‘Taboos are there to be broken', and she managed just that with her latest novel Het Gelukssyndroom (The Happiness Syndrome; 2008). In this story the Moroccan Layla gives in to sombre feelings until she realizes that her dying friend, the blonde Marit, needs her. The novel is based on El Bezaz’s own experience. The writer suffered from a depression - often taboo in the Muslim community - after the death of a friend and threats as a result of her novel De Verstotene (The Outcast). This novel was dubbed by her publisher ‘the Lady Chatterley's Lover of the Muslim community', owing to the fierce social criticism and explicit sex. El Bezaz's books are highly popular at secondary schools. Her novel Minnares van de Duivel (The Devil's Lover) was a downright best-seller in 2002 after she had read an erotic passage in a satirical tv programme.