Shirin Ramzanali Fazel
Shirin Ramzanali Fazel comes from a mixed family. Her father was Pakistani and her mother was Somali. She was born in Mogadiscio (Somalia) where she attended Italian schools. At the age of 18, after the “coup d'état” of Siad Barre, she left her country and in 1971 she arrived in Novara (Italy) with her young husband, an Italian citizen, and her little baby girl. A year and a half later she gave birth to her second child. Since 1976, due to her husband’s job, they moved for several years across different continents: Zambia, Saudi Arabia and the U.S.A., but she always kept her “home” in Italy, where she collaborated with different women’s group associations who dealt with social and immigration problems. She gave her contribution by speaking in schools and universities, acting as a bridge for the new growing multiethnic community. She also took part in several talks and conferences about Somalia, African women, infibulations and Islam. In 1995, her love for the African continent led her to live in Kenya. She came back to Italy only three years ago and this time permanently.
Her first autobiographical book, Lontano da Mogadiscio, was published in 1994 by Datanews, Rome. Her short story “Il segreto di Ommdurmann” appeared in Italian in Studies in Southern Africa, Johannesburg (1995). In 1994-95 and in 1995-96 she was a member of the panel of the first Eks&Tra writing contest for migrant writers. Her interview with Rebecca Hopkins, professor of the New York University in Florence, was published in the December 2007 online issue of El Ghibli. Her short-story “La Spiaggia” was published in the February 2008 issue of Scritture Migranti, a magazine of the Dipartimento di Italianistica dell'Università degli Studi di Bologna. A portrait of Shirin by Igiaba Scego has recently appeared in the weekly magazine Internazionale.
Shirin has just completed a novel, Nuvole sull’Equatore, to be published soon. It deals with the question of “meticciato,” a crude reality of the past Italian colonial government and life in Somalia.