Serene Husseini Shahid ( ,
French: Sirine Husseini Shahid, 1920 – 2008) was
born in Jerusalem
as a member of the influential Husayni family. Her father was
Jamal al-Husayni, her maternal grandfather
was
Mayor of Jerusalem
Faidi al-Alami, and her maternal
uncle was
Musa al-Alami.
She was
educated at the Ramallah
Friends School in Ramallah
, later at
the American
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) 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 about
Palestinian costumes and
embroidery and helped arrange exhibitions, including one in the
Museum of
Mankind
in the British Museum
in 1991.[386370] She has also donated items to the
Palestine Costume Archive.
Her
daughter Leila Shahid is Palestinian
envoy to European
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"
[386371]. 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): Jerusalem Memories, Naufal, Beirut
,
2000. First Edition.
See also
References
- INAASH; Association for the Development of Palestinian
Camps
Wikis
Map
Search