Hind al-Husayni

1916 - 1994

Palestinian philanthropist.

Hind al-Husayni was the daughter of Tahir Shuqri al-Husayni, a member of the prominent Jerusalem family that has dominated the city's politics and society for centuries. He died in 1918, leaving a family of six. Hind attended the Jerusalem Girls College (JGC) in the 1930s and was a member of a private girls' school strike committee during the 1936 - 1939 Strike and Revolt. Husayni became interested in social work through her studies with Victoria and Elizabeth Nasir, aunts of Palestinian academic Hanna Nasir. After finishing her training at the JGC, she taught at the Islamic Girls School in Jerusalem until 1946. During the 1940s Husayni was president of the Women's Solidarity Society, whose work focused on child care for the children of working mothers. On 14 April 1948, after the massacre of Palestinians by the Irgun in the village of Dayr Yasin, many orphaned children were deposited in Jerusalem, where Husseini found them. In order to care for them, she founded an orphanage named Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi (House of the Arab Child), which was located in her family home in Jerusalem. From then until the present, the institution developed and expanded its philanthropic activities, which included a nursery, kindergarten, and school; vocational and computer training; and a farm. Hind al-Husayni died in 1994.

Bibliography

Okkenhaug, Inger Marie. The Quality of Heroic Living, of HighEndeavour and Adventure: Anglican Mission, Women, and Education in Palestine, 1888 - 1948. (Studies in Christian Mission 27.) Boston and Leiden, Neth.: Brill, 2002.

— ELLEN L. FLEISCHMANN