Hind Taher Al-Husseini

(1916–1994)

Hind Taher Al-Husseini was born in Jerusalem in 1916 and grew up in a conservative Jerusalemite family that valued education, refinement, and social responsibility in everyday life. She began her schooling at the Islamic Girls’ School, adjacent to Al-Aqsa Mosque, completing elementary school in 1922, and then enrolled in the English High School for Girls, graduating in 1937. She worked as a teacher at the Islamic School until 1945, when her strong sense of social responsibility led her to establish the Women’s Social Solidarity Society, which quickly expanded to 22 branches across Palestine.

The 1948 Nakba marked the pivotal turning point in her life. After the Deir Yassin massacre, she gathered fifty-five surviving children – boys and girls – and rented two rooms for them in the Basket Market, possessing merely 138 Palestinian pounds. At this time, she made her famous pledge: “I will live with them, or die with them.” From this seed grew the Arab Children’s Home Association. She started in her grandfather’s house in Sheikh Jarrah, where she converted the garage and stables into makeshift classrooms before gradually expanding it into a leading educational and cultural institution.

Over the years, Dar al-Tifl al-Arabi Association came to include the Institute of Education and Social Service, the College of Arts for Girls, and a research center at the Esaf Nashashibi House. Hind also founded the Palestinian Folk Museum, which has collected 3,200 embroidered pieces that preserved the country’s material memory. Her efforts and wide participation in Arab conferences on women and development have received both local and international recognition through prestigious awards.

Hind Al-Husseini offered a unique model that combined educational and social work, affirming that building the human being, protecting heritage, and strengthening identity are the foundations upon which the future of Jerusalem and Palestine can be built.