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 edit
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.
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f "Amal Al-Khedairy Biography". Archived from the original on 2018-01-13. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
- ^ "Edgy artist Max Schwartz brings poetry to Melbourne". Idafan.com. Archived from the original on 2011-07-13. Retrieved 2010-12-24.
- ^ "Iraq Coalition". Intersect Worldwide. Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2010-12-24.
- ^ a b c Amal Al-Khedairy by Jyiis Archived 2011-07-09 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2014-07-16.