Suad Amiry (سعاد أميري) (b. 1951) is
a Palestinian writer and architect living in the West Bank town of
Ramallah. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut,
the University of Michigan, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Her parents went from Palestine to Amman, Jordan. She was brought up
there and went to Lebanon's capital of Beirut to study architecture. Her book, Sharon and My
Mother-in-Law, has been translated into 19 languages, the last one in
Arabic, was a bestseller in France. The book was awarded in 2004 the
prestigious Viareggio Prize in Italy.
From 1991 to 1993 Amiry was a member
of a Palestinian peace delegation in Washington D.C. She is engaged in
some major peace initiatives of Palestinian and Israeli women. She is Director and founder of the
Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation, the center was founded in
1991; the first of its kind to work on the rehabilitation and protection
of architectural heritage in Palestine. Amiry was a member of staff at
Birzeit University until 1991, since then she has worked for Riwaq where
she is the director. Riwaq received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2013 for the Revitalisation of Birzeit Historic Centre. She was appointed as a vice-chairperson of the
Board of Trustees of Birzeit University in 2006.
Amiry lives in Ramallah with her husband, the academic and political activist Salim Tamari.
Source: Arab Women Writers, [accessed 2 May 2014])
