Bushra Al-Maqtari, a Yemeni writer, activist and former researcher at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies, was born in Taiz and earned a history degree from Taiz University. She emerged as a leading figure in the 2011 Yemeni Revolution, notably organizing marches such as the “March for Life” from Taiz to Sanaa, and later sustained an injury from a grenade fragment while covering a protest as a freelance reporter for Mareb Press. Her literary work includes the 2012 novel Behind the Sun and the 2018 nonfiction collection What You Have Left Behind : Voices from the Land of the Forgotten War, which amplifies the testimonies of survivors of Yemen’s war. Her activism and writings drew fierce backlash, as in 2012, extremist clerics issued a fatwa accusing her of apostasy and inciting marches and online threats to revoke her nationality. She received notable recognition, including the Françoise Giroud Award for Defense of Freedom and Liberties (2013) and the Johann Philipp Palm Award for Freedom of Speech and Press (2020). Despite offers to relocate abroad, she remains in Yemen, committed to her writing and documentation of the war’s civilian toll.