Atiya’s death was announced by her daughter, Gameela Weify, on social media. Weify stated that her mother passed away after a long battle with illness. In December, she had revealed that Atiya was hospitalized and in critical condition.
Hanaa Atiya was an Egyptian author and screenwriter. She graduated from the Higher Institute of Cinema at the Academy of Arts, Department of Screenwriting, in 1988.
She wrote the screenplays for two feature films: Khalta Fawzia (Fawzia’s Secret Recipe, 2009), directed by Magdi Ahmed Ali, and Youm Lel Settat (A Day for Women, 2016), directed by Kamla Abouzekri. The latter was nominated for the Golden Pyramid, the top prize at the Cairo International Film Festival, and won Best Actress for Nahed El-Sebai. The film also received several awards at other local festivals, including Best Screenplay for Atiya.
Atiya also published several short story collections, beginning with Nearby Balconies, a work that helped pave the way for a new writing sensibility among the 1990s generation of writers. This was followed by She and Her Services, Gentle Rain, The Violence of Shadow, and On Hatred. The Violence of Shadow was awarded the Sawiris Award for Senior Writers.
She also authored a prose poem titled The Last of the Heart.
The funeral prayers for Atiya took place today at Al-Sayeda Nafisa Mosque, followed by burial at the family cemetery in Al-Santa, Gharbia Governorate.
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