During a talk at the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair, the Iraqi novelist reflects on exile, identity, and the role of fiction in preserving an Iraq that has changed beyond recognition

Sharjah, November 14, 2025

For Inaam Kachachi, writing is an act of resistance. The Iraqi novelist and journalist uses fiction to hold on to a version of her home country that exile has tried to erase. Speaking in a session at the 44th Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF), she described her work as a way of keeping memory alive, a response to the loss of a homeland transformed by war and absence. Her stories offer a record of culture, longing and belonging that crosses borders.