Salwa Abu Khadra

Salwa Abu Khadra
Personal details
Born1929 (1929)
Jaffa, Mandatory Palestine
Died (aged 95)
NationalityPalestinian
Political partyFatah
Alma mater

Salwa Abu Khadra (1929 – 15 November 2024) was a Palestinian politician and educator who was a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah, where she held various posts. She was part of the first generation women leaders of both groups.[1]

Biography

Abu Khadra was born in Jaffa in 1929.[2] Her family is from Gaza.[3] In 1948 they had to leave Jaffa and settled in Damascus.[1]

Abu Khadra completed her secondary education at Saint Joseph Sisters School in Jaffa in 1945.[4] She obtained a certificate in education from the University of Oxford in 1947 and a degree in French literature from Saint Joseph University in 1952.[2] Later she settled in Kuwait[1] and played a significant role in the education of Palestinian girls.[2] She established the first nursery school in Kuwait.[5] She also founded a private school in Kuwait where she worked until 1990.[2] She left Kuwait due to the Gulf War in 1991 and settled in Egypt where her daughter had been living.[1]

Abu Khadra's political career began when she joined Fatah in 1965.[2] The same year she took part in the establishment of Palestinian women council.[6] In 1967 she became a board member of the General Union of Palestinian Women.[3] She was a member of the Palestinian Higher Council for Culture, Science and Education from 1976, and a member of the revolutionary council of Fatah from 1980.[4] She also served as a member of the PLO's central committee.[3] She was elected as the secretary general of the General Union of Palestinian Women in May 1985.[7] She was also the secretary general of the women bureau of Fatah and served as a member of the Consultative Committee of the Palestinian Constitution.[2] Abu Khadra headed the Palestinian delegation at the second conference on women of the United Nations in 1980.[3]

Abu Khadra died on 15 November 2024, at the age of 95.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Amal Kawar (February 1996). Daughters of Palestine. Leading Women of the Palestinian National Movement. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-7914-2845-0.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Abu Khadra, Salwa (1929-)". PASSIA. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Ghada Talhami (2012). Historical Dictionary of Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. pp. 11–12. ISBN 978-0-8108-7086-4.
  4. ^ a b "Ms. Salwa Abu Khadra". Yasser Arafat Foundation. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  5. ^ Shafeeq N. Ghabra (2018). "Palestinians in Kuwait". This Week in Palestine. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  6. ^ Nadia Issam Harhash (May 2016). The Growth and Development of the Palestinian Women's Movement in Jerusalem During the British Mandate (1920s-1940s) (MA thesis). Al-Quds University. p. 122.
  7. ^ "The Palestine Problem in Public Debate". Journal of Palestine Studies. 15 (1): 183. Autumn 1985. doi:10.2307/2536602. JSTOR 2536602.
  8. ^ "الرئيس ينعى المناضلة سلوى أبو خضرا". Wafa.ps. 15 November 2024. Retrieved 16 November 2024.