Afifa Karam
Lebanese-American journalist, novelist, and translator
Afifa Karam (Arabic: عفيفة كرم, ALA-LC: ʻAfīfah Karam; July 22, 1883 – July 28, 1924) was a Lebanese-American journalist, novelist, and translator. A writer for the New York City-based Arabic-language daily newspaper Al-Hoda, Karam authored three original Arabic novels as well as a number of Arabic translations of novels from English and French. She was an advocate for women's rights in the Mahjar, or Arab diaspora, and of Arab Feminism.
Early life
Afifa Karam was born in Amsheet, then in the Mount Lebanon Mutasarrifate, to Yusuf Salih Karam (1822-1895) and Frusina Habib Sharbel. Her family were wealthy Maronites, and her father Yusuf was a doctor in the Ottoman army. Karam was educated in local missionary schools until the untimely and unexpected death of her father when she was thirteen. Subsequently, she was married to her cousin, Karam Hanna Salih Karam (known as John Karam or K. John), who had emigrated to the United States six years prior. In 1897, she and her husband moved to the United States and settled in Shreveport, Louisiana.
Journalism
Karam continued to study Arabic language and literature. In 1903, at the age of twenty, she began to submit her writing to the New York City-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Hoda (Arabic: الهدى, romanized: al-hudā, lit. 'The Guidance').
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q19974775. VIAF identifies the subject as 88467229. The Library of Congress control number is no2009067894. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1883, 1924, 1822 and 1895.
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This entry incorporates text from “Afifa Karam” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.