- Serene Husseini Shahid
Serene Husseini Shahid ( _ar. سيرين حُسيني شهيد, French: Sirine Husseini Shahid, b. 1920, d. 2008) was born in
Jerusalem as a member of the influentialHusayni family. Her father wasJamal al-Husayni , her maternal grandfather was Mayor of JerusalemFaidi al-Alami , and her maternal uncle was Musa al-Alami.She was educated at the Ramallah Friends School in
Ramallah , later at theAmerican University of Beirut .She married Dr Munib Shahib in 1944 and they settled in Beirut.
After 1967 she became involved in starting "cottage industries" among the Palestinian refugees. She worked on embroidery projects for Palestinian women, conducting embroidery workshops on weekdays. She helped found the Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps, a.k.a. "Inaash" (founded 1969) [ [http://www.inaash.org/search.asp INAASH; Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps] ] in Lebanon, an association devoted to preserving Traditional Palestinian Embroidery and helping women and children in
Palestinian Refugee Camps in Lebanon. At the same time she has written aboutPalestinian costumes and embroidery and helped arrange exhibitions, including one in theMuseum of Mankind in theBritish Museum in 1991. [http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199101/woven.legacy.woven.language.htm] She has also donated items to the [http://www.palestinecostumearchive.org Palestine Costume Archive] .Her daughter
Leila Shahid is Palestinian envoy toEuropean Commission . Her other two daughters, Maya and Zeina, design and promote Palestinian Embroideries for Inaash.Her autobiography, "Jerusalem Memories", was published in 2000, and was critically acclaimed as "breaking new ground" [http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,818330,00.html] . It has been translated into several languages.
Bibliography
*Weir, Shelagh and Shahid, Serene: "Palestinian embroidery : cross-stitch patterns from the traditional costumes of the village women of Palestine". London:
British Museum publications, c1988. ISBN 0-7141-1591-6
*Shahid, Serene Hussein (Editor: Jean Said Makdisi), (Introduction -Edward W. Said ): " [http://www.jerusalemites.org/memoirs/women/10.htm Jerusalem Memories] ", Naufal,Beirut , 2000. First Edition.
** [http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org/details.php?cat=8&id=86 Jerusalem Passages] , (excerpts from Jerusalem Memories), Spring 2000, Issue 8,Jerusalem Quarterly ee also
*
Palestinian costumes References
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