Suad Amiry is a Palestinian writer, a conservation architect, and a political and social activist. Suad Amiry is the author of the internationally acclaimed memoir Sharon and My Mother in Law: Ramallah Diaries (Random House, 2005) which uses humor and irony to describe the absurdity, and cruelty, of living under a prolonged Israeli Occupation. The book has been translated into 20 languages and has won the prestigious Italian Literary Award “Premio Viareggio” 2004. Amiry is also the author of Nothing to Lose But Your Life: an 18 hour Journey with Murad (Bloomsbury, 2010) in which Amiry disguises as a male worker and accompanies a group of Palestinian workers “the illegal laborers in their homeland” across the “Separation wall” in search for a job in Israel. Her latest book Golda Slept Here (Bloomsbury 2015) which describes what it means to lose ones home and not to “feel at home” ever again, won the Italian Nonino Prize (2014).
Amiry is the founder of RIWAQ: Centre for Architecture Conservation, an NGO based in Ramallah, Palestine, which has won many international awards (the Prince Clause Award, the Carry Stone Social Design Prize, and the Aga Khan Award for architecture 2014). RIWAQ has succeeded in transforming the concept and process of Rehabilitation (and gentrification) of historic centers and buildings into a vehicle of poverty elevation, job creation and a tool for social and economic development for marginalized groups (women and children) in rural Palestine; or what Amiry refers to as “Public Spaces and buildings for Social Change”. (www.riwaq.org)
To get to know Suad Amiry watch her TED Talk: “My Work my Hobby: Simply Look Inside You Never at Others.”