Helmi Ben Meriem is a researcher of Somali literature at the University of Sousse, Tunisia, where he is finishing his PhD dissertation under the direction of American fiction writer and professor of Anglophone studies, Edward Sklepowich. Mr. Ben Meriem, also a fiction writer, focuses in his creative writings on marginalized segments of the Arab and/or Muslim world such as women, homosexuals, atheists, and religious minorities among others.