Hanan al-Shaykh (Arabic: حنان الشيخ; born 12 November 1945) is a Lebanese author of contemporary literature.

She left Beirut again in 1975 at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War and moved to Saudi Arabia to work and write there.

Her daughter is Juman Malouf, a writer, illustrator and costume designer who in 2015 was the romantic partner of American director Wes Anderson.

[3] Her work often implies or states sexually explicit scenes and sexual situations which go directly against the social mores of conservative Arab society, which has led to her books being banned in the more conservative areas of the region including Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.

In other countries, they are difficult to obtain because of censorship laws which prevent the Arabic translations from being easily accessible to the public.