Shafinaaz Hassim is a South African author and sociologist. Her more than a dozen publications span a wide range of genres, and her works have been commended in various awards. She was first recognised on the scene of literary works in 2007 with her ground-breaking publication, Daughters are Diamonds: Honour, Shame and Seclusion – A South African Perspective which interrogated the autonomy of women in traditional settings. She went on to lecture a course in sociology based on the book, first at UKZN and then at her alma mater, the University of the Witwatersrand. In 2011, she launched the Anthologies for Social Change with the edited collection Belly of Fire. Her novel SoPhia (2012) documented gender-based violence and was shortlisted for the UJ Prize for Creative Writing in English in 2013 and the K Sello Duiker Award at the SA Literary Awards 2013. It was used as instructional text for social work students at the University of Johannesburg and for psychology students at UKZN. It went on to inspire performance theatre during womens’ month 2014 at the Pretoria State Theatre. In 2014, she was listed by UNESCO as one of the top 39 writers in Africa under the age of 40. Her winning contribution, The Pink Oysters was published by Bloomsbury UK in the Africa39 anthology edited by Ela Wakatama. In 2020, she published a collection, The Pink Oysters and other stories to commemorate this award-winning story alongside a host of new pieces. Hassim’s well-received novel on human-trafficking, The Economics of Love and Happiness (2019) was recently long-listed for the National Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS) awards 2021. She is also the author of the Nisa Qamar series for young adults, which has been shortlisted twice for the Minara Aziz Hassim Literary Awards and the prestigious Sanlam Prize for Youth Literature 2019.
