Anja Meulenbelt

Anja Meulenbelt is a Dutch author, feminist, activist, and former politician whose writing has had a profound influence on feminist thought in the Netherlands. Born in Utrecht during the final months of the Second World War, she later studied social work and social sciences at the University of Amsterdam after raising her son as a single mother. Her personal experiences with gender inequality, domestic violence, and economic hardship became the foundation of her writing and activism, helping to shape the Dutch second-wave feminist movement.

Meulenbelt achieved national prominence in 1976 with De schaamte voorbij (The Shame Is Over), a groundbreaking work that blended autobiography with feminist analysis. The book became one of the defining texts of second-wave feminism in the Netherlands, was translated into numerous languages, and established her as one of the country's leading feminist writers. Over the following decades, she published more than fifty books and essays on feminism, sexuality, class, racism, social justice, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Alongside her literary career, she taught for many years at what became the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, worked internationally as a trainer on violence prevention and victim support, and served as a member of the Dutch Senate for the Socialist Party (SP) from 2003 to 2011. In 2026, she was awarded the prestigious P.C. Hooft Prize for her lifetime contribution to reflective prose.

Known for combining personal experience with political analysis, Meulenbelt has remained an influential public intellectual throughout her career. Her work consistently examines feminism, inequality, migration, and human rights, arguing that individual lives cannot be separated from the social and political structures that shape them. Through her writing, teaching, and activism, she has become one of the most significant voices in modern Dutch nonfiction and feminist literature.