Rim Battal
photo credit Anne-Sophie Guillet
Rim Battal is a poet, journalist, and artist. She is the author of multiple poetry collections in French, including Vingt poèmes et des poussières, Latex, and Pommes Girl. The original French text of I'll Look Myself in the Eyes, Je me regarderai dans les yeux, recently won the 2025 prix de la littérature arabe des lycéens and was a finalist for the main Arab literature prize in France. Battal splits her time between Paris and Marrakesh.
Books
I’LL LOOK MYSELF IN THE EYES
trans. Liza Tripp
In this autobiographical novel, 17-year-old Rim is caught smoking out her window in her home in Marrakesh, Morocco. This minor transgression unleashes the fury of her mother who flies into a rage and demands that Rim complete a gynecological test certifying her virginity. So begins a nuanced journey into the tangled web of a patriarchal society in which various generations of women seem to complicitly preserve the status quo. Ultimately, it is Rim who breaks the cycle of dysfunction, rebels against tradition, confronts betrayal from the women closest to her, and dares to be her true self.
