Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraqi journalist and novelist Inaam Kachachi has won the Best Columnist Award at the 25th Arab Media Award, held as part of the 2026 Arab Media Summit in Dubai.

The award recognized Kachachi’s journalism career spanning more than five decades and her work combining journalism with literary writing, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities.

Award organizers praised her ability to combine journalistic rigor, human insight and literary style in addressing social issues through research and investigation.

The honor adds to Kachachi’s literary and journalistic record. In 2025, she won the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Award in the Short Story, Novel and Drama category.

Three of her novels —The American Granddaughter, Tashari and The Outcast— were shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction in 2009, 2014 and 2019, respectively.

Born in Baghdad in 1952, Kachachi studied journalism at the University of Baghdad and worked in Iraqi press, radio and television before moving to Paris in 1979 to pursue postgraduate studies.

She earned a doctorate from the Sorbonne in 1986 with a thesis on press campaigns and continued her journalism career from the French capital, including as a Paris correspondent and columnist for Arab publications.