# Saida Hagi-Dirie Herzi (Saciida Xaaji Diiriye Xirsi)

> Saida Hagi-Dirie Herzi: Somali feminist short-story writer, among the first to write fiction in English.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/people/saida-hagi-dirie-herzi/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## Who is she?

Saida Hagi-Dirie Herzi is a Somali feminist writer born in Mogadishu in the 1950s ([Wikipedia, Saida Hagi-Dirie Herzi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saida_Hagi-Dirie_Herzi)). She earned a degree in English literature at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, where she later taught, and a master's degree from the American University in Cairo (same source). She divides her time among several countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States and Kenya (same source).

## Writing

She was one of the first Somali writers to publish fiction in English, and her stories take up women's rights, female genital mutilation and corruption ([Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saida_Hagi-Dirie_Herzi)).

- "Against the Pleasure Principle" first appeared in 1990 in the journal *Index on Censorship*, over concern that its depiction of genital mutilation might otherwise be censored (same source). It draws on her own experience and was later included in Margaret Busby's anthology *Daughters of Africa* (1992) (same source).
- "Government by Magic Spell" appeared in *The Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories* (1992), edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes, and was broadcast on BBC Radio in 2012 (same source).
- "The Barren Stick" was first published in 2002 (same source).

## In short

A pioneering Somali writer of English-language short stories on women's rights and politics.

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