Easton Press Hanan Ashrawi books
Hanan Ashrawi biography
Ashrawi was born to Palestinian Christian parents on October 8, 1946 in the West Bank city of Nablus. Her father, Daoud Mikhail, was the founder of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Her family later moved to Ramallah, where she attended the Ramallah Friends Girls School. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees in literature in the Department of English at the American University of Beirut. While a graduate student in literature at the American University in Beirut she dated Peter Jennings of ABC News who was then stationed there as ABC's Beirut bureau chief. When the Six-Day War broke out in 1967, Ashrawi as a 22 year-old student in Lebanon, was declared an absentee by Israel and denied re-entry to the West Bank. For the next six years, Ashrawi traveled and completed her education gaining a Ph.D. in Medieval and Comparative Literature from the University of Virginia. Ashrawi was finally allowed to re-join her family in 1973 under the family reunification plan.
On August 8, 1975 she married Emil Ashrawi (born 1951), a Christian Jerusalemite who is now a photographer and a theater director. Together they have two daughters, Amal (born 1977) and Zeina (born 1981).
Ashrawi received an Honorary Doctoral Degree at the American University of Beirut on June 28, 2008 as part of an award ceremony coinciding with the university's 139th commencement. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Palestine Studies.
Ashrawi holds honorary degrees from Earlham College and Smith College.
Ashrawi is a passionate advocate of many human rights and gender issues. She is the recipient of numerous international peace, human rights and democracy awards, such as the Olof Palme Award, the Defender of Democracy Award, the Jane Addams International Women's Leadership Award, the Distinguished Alumna Award of the University of Virginia Women's Center, the Distinguished Lifetime Achievements AUB Alumni Award, and the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation.
Like her parents, Ashrawi self-identifies as a devout Christian as well as a feminist. Her faith led to criticism of her by Palestinan Islamic fundamentalists, claiming that it keeps her from functioning as a proper spokesperson.
Hanan Ashrawi books and other works
Anthology of Palestinian Literature
The Modern Palestinian Short Story: An Introduction to Practical Criticism
Contemporary Palestinian Literature under Occupation
Contemporary Palestinian Poetry and Fiction
Literary Translation: Theory and Practice
This Side of Peace: A Personal Account
Source and additional information: Hanan Ashrawi