Suad Amiry
Suad Amiry (Arabic: سعاد العامري) is a Palestinian writer and architect has been living in Ramallah since 1981.
Born in Damascus, Amiry grew up between Amman, Damascus, Beirut and Cairo. She studied architecture at the American University of Beirut, Michigan, US, and in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Amiry is author of the well-known book Sharon and My Mother-in-Law which has been translated into 17 languages and was awarded the prestigious 2004 Viareggio Prize.
She is the founder and Director of the Riwaq: Centre for Architectural Conservation. Amiry is the vice-president of the Board of Trustees of Birzeit University.
Her book Menopausal Palestine: Women at the Edge was published in India by Women Unlimited (2010) Her latest book Nothing to Lose But your Life, has been published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation April 2010. Amiry lives in Ramallah with her husband, the academic and political activist Salim Tamari.
“Fucker, I though to myself. So irritated by a stare!I wonder what your reaction would have been if you had lived under occupation for as many years as I had, or if your shopping rights, like all of your other rights, were violated day and night, or if the olive trees in your grandfather's orchards had been uprooted, or if your village had been bulldozed, or if your house had been demolished, or if your sister could not reach her school, or if your brother had been given three life sentences, or if your mother had given birth at a checkpoint, or if you had stood in a line for days in the hot August summers waiting for your work permit, or if you could not reach your beloved ones in Arab East Jerusalem....A stare, and you lose your mind!”
“A thousand times a coward and not once a dead man”
“Only then did I realise that for me, and many others, Israel was virtual. For Murad, Israel was 'home.' Israel was a reality; a harsh reality.”
“Nothing makes sense, why should I?”