Latifa Zayyat (Arabic: لطيفة الزيات; variant English spelling: Latifa al-Zayyat) was an Egyptian feminist writer and academic.
As a student attending Cairo University in the 1940s, where she was part of left-wing and feminist movements on campus. She was later imprisoned for her political view (during the presidency of Anwar Sadat
Zayyat was Professor of English at Ain Shams University. She publishing critical studies on American and English writers, as well as short stories in her native Arabic.
Her novel al-Bab al-Maftuh (The Open Door, translated into English by Marilyn Booth in 2000) is a classic of Middle Eastern feminism, whose female protagonist is - like the author - a radical fighting colonialism and middle class values as well as stifling patriarchy.
Her autobiography, "Hamlat Tafteesh: Awraq Shakhseyyah" (Search Operation: Personal Papers, 1992) is also available in English, and in several other languages.