Zulaikha Abd ar-Rahman Abu Risha (Jordan)
Abu Risha studied Arabic Literature at Jordan University and is preparing her doctoral thesis on „Women in Arabic Feminist Literature” at the University of Exeter (UK). Abu Risha also studied educational science and administration. As an expert in feminism she is known for her Gender-Studies.
She is director of the Centre for Women’s Studies in Amman, Founder and Director of the feminist publishing house al-Warraqat li-d-dirasat wal-buhuth, chief editor of the educational Magazine al-Mu’allim/at-talib and of Magallat Funun, an art journal published by the Jordanian ministry of culture. She is columnist writer in the Jordanian daily ar-Ra’i and writes for many other Arabic newspapers. Many of the things she writes is provocative and arouses public debates, such as her demand to change the Arabic language from an „absent“ language into a language without feminine/masculine gender.
Publications:
Language and Gender; Women in pre-Islamic Poetry: Ibn Muqbil; Women in the Modern Literature of Jordan, The Gate to the Square by Sahar Khalifa: A Feminist Reading. She has also written children books :The two Jewels; The Horn of pepper; Sorry, Mum; To Whom belongs this soft Voice, Bah bah?. She has also written a research on children’s literature: Attempt of a theory (in print).
Zulaikha Abu Risha is a poetress, too.
Some of her anthologies:
- The Hiding moves softly away (tarashaqa l-khifa’);
- Gypsy of the Water (Ghagar al-ma’);
- The Singing of the Priests and Advice of the Feathers (Taratil al-kahina wa-wasaya ar-rish);
- Unrest: Stories of Victory and Sleeping (al-bilbal: Abwab fi l-magd wa-l-kara).
Abu Risha was consulted as Jury for many prise competitions of Literature and children’s books. She is member of the Jordanian Association of Writers. She was awarded the Prise of the Jordanian University for her anthology of short stories: In Jail 1987.
Siham Muhammad Abd as-Salam al-Barghouthi (Palestine)
Al-Barghouti is general director of rural development in the Palestinian Ministry of local administration. She is member in the political office of the Palestinian democratic Union and Head of the Palestinian Women’s Worker’s Union. Her greatest services are her engagement in the involvement of women in political activism. 1973 she contributed to founding voluntary youth working groups. Women were treated equally with men and were encouraged to take an important role in the resistance against occupation. Al-Barghouthi is committee member of the General Union of Palestinian Women, committee member of the professional group responsible for women’s affairs (in Ramallah). She led many workshops and seminars on the political and social role of women.
Because of her political engagement in the „Popular Front for the liberation of Palestine“ Mrs al-Barghouthi was not allowed to leave the country for ten years. She was prohibited to continue her work. She was under house arrest for 2,5 years and was taken prisoner and held in the women’s Jail at ar-Ramlah for another 2,5 years.
Muhammad Fa’iq (Egypt)
Secretary general of the Arab Organization for Human Rights (AOHR) in the headquarter in Egypt, an NGO, which functions as consultant of the The Economic and Social Council of the UN. M. Fa’iq ist director and owner of the publishing house Dar al-mustaqbal al-arabi. He is active member in many human rights organizations in Egypt and in other countries of the Arab World. He was in many influential positions: he was Information Minister, Minister of State for foreign Affairs, Minister for National Orientation, personal Secretary and Advisor of President Gamal Abdul Nasser for Africa and Asia, elected member of the Egyptian Parliament, and he was appointed to the foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union.
M. Fa’iq was heading the embassy on the summit of the African Union, representing the Position of President Nasser and the Egyptian government. He represented Egypt also on the forth Commission of the General Assembly of the UNO between 1962 and 1965. He took part in the African liberation movement for independence 1953-1971. He was founding member of the solidarity movement of the African and Asian People. Muhammad Fa’iq did a lot of diplomatic travelling, where he represented Egypt and often the president personally at conferences and official meetings.
Fa’iq published several books on Africa and the human rights. His most famous one is: Gamal Abdul Nasser and the African Revolution.
Hussain Shaban (Iraq/London)
Legal consultat, researcher and author, specialized in international law and human rights. Dr. Shaban was born in Iraq, an-Nagaf al-Ashraf in 1945. He studied economics and political sciences in Baghdad (1967/68) and continued his studies in Prague, where he took a Master degree and PhD in law (1976/1977). Dr. Shaban has been for many years chairman of the Arab Organisation for Human Rights (AOHR) in London. He was founding member of the Arab Commission („Arab Commission for the struggle against Zionism and Rassism“) that was initiated to support the UN Security Council Resolution 3379 of the General Assembly 1975 (in which Zionism was equated with racism) and was its secretary general between 1986 and 1989.
Today Dr. Shaban is working as lawyer and outside lecturer at the University of London. He is engaged in many organizations and societies, for example the Euro-mediterranean human rights network in Kopenhagen, he is committee member of the Centre for Freedom of Press in the Near East and Northern Africa (London), the International Federation of Journalists (in Prague), the Arab Lawyer’s Union (Cairo), and the International Union of Lawyers (London). In the mid-eighties he and his colleagues published the Iraqi left wing Journal al-Minbar in exile in Lebanon (Beirut).
Dr. Shaban wrote many books, some of which are:
- A Panorama of the Golf War (1995);
- Power and the Principle of Humanitarian Intervention (2000);
- The Trial (1992);
- An Introduction into International Law and Human Rights (2002);
- Zionism Today and International Law (1985);
- The Palestinian Intifada and the Human Rights (1991);
- The Open City (2001);
- Cartago must be Destroyed (1985);
- America and the Islam (1987);
- Islam and the Human Rights (2001).
- In the field of literature he wrote: Away Unseen by Spyers (1994); al-Gawahiri (1997); Abu Kati’: On the Riversides of Sad Sarcasm (1998). He also translated books, for example Memoires of a Zionist (1986).
In the field of literature he wrote:
- Away Unseen by Spyers (1994);
- al-Gawahiri (1997);
- Abu Kati’: On the Riversides of Sad Sarcasm (1998).
He also translated books, for example Memoires of a Zionist (1986).
Khalil Shikaki (Palestine)
Dr. Shikaki is one of the most internationally respected expert on the Middle East conflict. 1975 he took his degree in political science from the American University in Beirut and continued his postgraduate studies in the USA, Columbia University, New York (PhD in 1985). He was visiting professor in several universities: Columbia University (1986-1997) University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2001-), al-Najah University in Nablus (1986-97) and as associated professor at the al-Najah University in Nablus (19986-1997) and Bir Zeit University (2001-..).
From 1993 to 1999 Shikaki was editor-in-chief of the scientific Magazine al-Siyasa al-filastiniyya and director of the Center for Palestine Research and Studies in Nablus (1993-1995) and from 1993 to 1999 supervisor of the scientific projects at the centre. From 1996 to 1997 he was Dean of Scientific Research at the the al-Najah University in Nablus. Since 2000 he is director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) in Ramallah. At the time Dr. Shikaki is staying in Washington DC as visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution.
Some of Recent Publications:
- Public Opinion Surveys: Conducted more than 75 polls among Palestinains in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since 1993.
- The Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Oslo and the Lessons of Failure (East Sussex: Sussex Academic Press, 2002), co-editor with Roberth Rothstein and Moshe Ma’oz.
- “Determinants of Reconciliation and Compromise among Israelis and Palestinians,” Journal of Peace Research (March 2002), pp.185-202.
- “Peace Now or Hamas Later,” Foreign Affairs (July/August 1998), pp. 29-43.
- The Palestinian Refugee Problem and the Right of Return, with Joseph Alpher (Cambridge: Harvard University, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, 1998)
- “The Future of the Peace Process and Palestinian Strategies,” Journal of Palestine Studies (Autumn 1996), pp. 82-88.
- “Israeli Elections, the Peace Process, and Palestinian Options,” al-Siyasa al-Filastiniyya, (Summer 1996) in Arabic.
- “The Peace Process, National Reconstruction, and Transition to Democracy in Palestine,” Journal of Palestine Studies (Winter 1996).
- “Palestinian-Jordanian Relations and the Process of National Reconstruction,” al-Siyasa al-Filastiniyya (Spring 1996) in Arabic.
- “The Taba Interim Agreement: Review and Evaluation,” al-Siyasa al-Filastiniyya, (Fall 1995) in Arabic.
- The Gaza Strip and the West Bank: Future Political and Administrative Links, (Jerusalem: Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, 1994, in Arabic.
