Life & contribution
Baghdad-born writer and visual artist whose work explores Iraqi Jewish childhood, migration, memory and identity.
Detailed biography & historical context
Baghdad-born writer and visual artist whose work explores Iraqi Jewish childhood, migration, memory and identity.
The documented record currently assembled for Mona Yahia includes the following: Born in Baghdad in 1954, she escaped Iraq in 1970 and later moved from Israel to Germany, where she studied fine arts. Her novel When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad uses fiction to reconstruct Jewish family life and repression in Baghdad during the 1960s.
This figure is important to the literary history of Iraqi Jews because writing became a way to preserve language, memory and the experience of belonging to Iraq before and after migration. The record also shows the continuing relationship between Arabic, Hebrew and diaspora literary cultures.
Archive classification: Literature & Art. Recorded life dates/status: born 1954.
This profile synthesizes the documentary sources listed below; where the record is limited or contested, the dossier avoids unsupported detail.
Additional documented context
- Born in Baghdad in 1954, she escaped Iraq in 1970 and later moved from Israel to Germany, where she studied fine arts.
- Her novel When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad uses fiction to reconstruct Jewish family life and repression in Baghdad during the 1960s.
Documentary references
Additional biographical details are tied to the source records below.
Permanent ID · IJHDA-PER-0037
This biographical figure record is integrated into Discover Jewish Iraq from the Virtual Embassy’s Iraqi Jewish heritage collection.