Personal Info
- Country of residence: Portugal
Information
Anyone who wants to talk about the late Mrs. Shahra Al-Masri must talk about the Women’s Union Association, as an organic relationship has existed between these two names since 1921.
It is difficult to express the depth of sorrow at the loss of such a distinguished and dedicated woman. It is even more difficult to speak of her in short sentences and humble words. I knew Mrs. Shahra al-Masri and knew her in ways that cannot be summarized. She was a woman who always worked quietly. I knew her as a proactive woman who sensed national and social concerns early on. In 1921, she and her longtime colleague, the late Maryam Hashim, along with a few other women in Nablus, established the Arab Women's Union Committee, a parallel committee to the other Arab Women's Union committees in Jaffa, Haifa, Acre, and other Palestinian cities. The late Mrs. al-Masri and her colleagues, defying all odds, provided aid and humanitarian services to the families of the martyrs of the successive Palestinian uprisings: beginning with the Buraq Uprising of 1929, and continuing through the uprisings of 1936 and 1939.
I remember how often she told me about the harshness of life and living conditions during that period for the people of her beloved city, Nablus. I remember her telling me one day that her eyes opened to... The demonstrations rejecting the ominous Balfour Declaration were where the seeds of political awareness crystallized within her, which was reflected in her as a national concern that must be addressed to mitigate its consequences. With the accumulation of these responsibilities on her shoulders and those of her colleagues, and with the beginning of the fall of Palestinian cities one after another into the hands of Jewish gangs during the 1948 war, Shahra and her colleagues found that it was necessary to redouble their efforts. She sent a plea to the girls of Nablus to join the first aid teams, and these women and girls performed their role admirably. After the war ended, Shahra and her colleagues, headed by the late Andalib Al-Amd, realized the necessity of sheltering the children of martyrs, and they exerted every possible effort for this noble humanitarian work. These efforts culminated in 1952 with the opening of the orphanage in Nablus, about which the late Andalib Al-Amd often spoke to me about the importance of this project, which she considered, as she always did, a part of her life, if not the most important part.
Source
Achievements and Awards
- Years in active
: From
To