He graduated from university in 1945 and pursued a diplomatic career which enabled him to live in a number of capital cities including Madrid and London and he later spent time in China where he wrote some of his best work. With frequent references to the female form this was not what society in Damascus was used to but he managed to get a leading politician in the education department on his side, thus rubber stamping the book as “acceptable”. He dabbled in poetry while doing his degree and caused some consternation by publishing a collection of romantic poems called The Brunette Told Me. The son of a middle class merchant father he was able to attend good schools and he went on to gain a law degree from the university in his home town. He was born Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani in 1923 in Damascus. He was never afraid to speak out against Arab authoritarianism, holding much more liberal views of politics than most home-based Syrians. Losing his sister to suicide had a profound effect on the 15 years old Nizar – she killed herself to avoid being forced to marry someone she did not love. His work was often seen as a homage to womanhood and he campaigned staunchly for their equal rights.
Nizar Qabbani was a Syrian-born poet, lawyer and diplomat who lived for much of his life outside of the middle east where he was able to express himself with a great deal more freedom than would have been allowed in his homeland.