Amal Al Khedairy Explained

Amal Al Khedairy (born 1928)[1] is an Iraqi academic, lecturer, scholar,[2] art historian[3] and founder and director of the cultural centre "Al Beit Al Iraqi" ("The Iraqi House") in Baghdad.[1] [4] The centre would focus mostly on reviving Iraqi crafts and finding new avenues for them, as well as concerts and lectures; being the only institution of its kind in Baghdad to do so during the 90s.[4] It was the only private center in Iraq focusing on Iraqi craft and heritage in Baghdad during the mid eighties until the fall of Baghdad on 9 April 2003.

Biography

Amal Al Khedairy was born in Damascus, French Syria, 1928, to a Syrian mother and well-known Iraqi father, Yasseen Al Khedairy, whose family has deep roots in Iraq since the 15th century.[1] Her father's family are connected to the Shammar tribe who originated from Najd in the Arabian Peninsula.[1] They later settled in the old quarter of Baghdad, close to the Gailani Mosque in the Bab Al Sheikh district, where her father would build a home later to become Amal's "Al Beit Al Iraqi" in 1988;[4] which was destroyed in a bombing by the American forces during the 2003 invasion of Iraq on April 4, 2003.

She studied at the University of London in the 1950s and also in Lausanne, Switzerland.[1]

Fluent in Arabic, English and French, with conversational Turkish and Spanish, Khedairy has been a lecturer at both the University of Baghdad, in the College of Architecture and the Women's College.[1]

Al Khedairy has one son, Munir El-Kadi (born 1970) and she resides between Amman, Jordan and Baghdad, Iraq.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Amal Al-Khedairy Biography . 2014-07-16 . 2018-01-13 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180113150244/http://www.brusselstribunal.org/bios/khedairy.htm . dead .
  2. Web site: Edgy artist Max Schwartz brings poetry to Melbourne . Idafan.com . 2010-12-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110713002554/http://www.idafan.com/MaxSchwartz-Melbourne.htm . 2011-07-13 . dead .
  3. Web site: Iraq Coalition . Intersect Worldwide . 2010-12-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110726182200/http://www.intersectworldwide.org/iraq.html . 2011-07-26 . dead .
  4. http://jyiis.deviantart.com/art/Al-Khedairy-4242405?q=gallery%3AJyiis%2F22751743&qo=7 Amal Al-Khedairy by Jyiis