Suha Arafat ( ar, سهى عرفات; born Suha Daoud Tawil ( ar, سهى داود الطويل) on 17 July 1963) is the widow of former
Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf al-Qudwa al-Husseini (4 / 24 August 1929 – 11 November 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat ( , ; ar, محمد ياسر عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني, Mu ...
.
Early life and education
Suha was born in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
on 17 July 1963 into an affluent
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
family who lived in
Nablus and then
Ramallah (both cities
under Jordanian rule at the time). Suha's father Daoud Tawil, an
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
-educated banker,
["Fight Over Icon Has Plenty of Precedent"](_blank)
Washington Post Foreign Service, 9 November 2004 was born in
Jaffa (now part of
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
). Daoud Tawil had business both in the
West Bank
The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...
and
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
.
Suha's mother,
Raymonda Hawa Tawil, born in
Acre, is a member of the Hawa family of Acre, prominent property owners in the
Haifa
Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...
area.
[ She was a poet and writer. She became a Palestinian political activist after 1967 and was arrested several times by the Israelis, making her a media star.][ She was also a high-profile Palestinian journalist.][ Suha was raised Catholic.] Suha, growing up in Ramallah, was influenced by the political activism of her mother conducted in the 1970s from her PLO-influenced news bureau in East Jerusalem.[
Suha attended a convent school, Rosary Sisters' School, in ]Beit Hanina
Beit Hanina ( ar, بيت حنينا , he, בית חנינא) is an Arab Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem. It is on the road to Ramallah, eight kilometers north of central Jerusalem, at an elevation of 780 meters above sea level. Bei ...
, Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. At age 18, she went to Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
to study, where she lived with her older sister, who was married to Ibrahim Souss, the PLO's then-ambassador to France.[ As a student, Suha was a leader in the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) in France, where she organized demonstrations for the Palestinian cause.
]
Marriage to Arafat
Suha, with her mother and sisters, met Arafat for the first time in 1985. When he visited France in 1989, she acted as an interpreter at the meetings with visitors and French government officials. It is argued that through her mother Suha met her husband. However, it is also argued that Suha met Arafat in 1987 and 1988, and helped organize his visit to Paris in 1989.
Soon after his departure from Paris, Arafat asked Suha to come and work with him in Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
(where the Palestinian Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and ...
had set up a haven). Suha secretly married Arafat on 17 July 1990, when she was aged 27 and he was 61. Their only child, daughter Zahwa, was born on 24 July 1995 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Zahwa was named after Arafat's mother.
Suha converted to Sunni Islam at the time of her marriage. Many Palestinians believe her conversion to be false, however; and allege that Suha has had millions of dollars channeled into secret bank accounts by her late husband, both of which she denies. During her marriage, she tried to leave Arafat on many occasions to escape the gossip aimed at her, but was not permitted to.
After Arafat's death
Suha and Zahwa lived in Tunisia from 2004 to 2007. Suha had also lived in Tunisia before marrying Arafat. They obtained Tunisian citizenship in September 2006. Zahwa went to the American Cooperative School of Tunisia. From 1998 onward she lived in Tunisia and France on and off.
Controversies in Tunisia
On 7 August 2007, Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
, without warning Suha, revoked her citizenship but not her daughter's. Suha claimed her Tunisian property was also frozen.
On 31 October 2011, the Tunis
''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois
, population_note =
, population_urban =
, population_metro = 2658816
, population_density_km2 =
, timezone1 = CET
, utc_offset1 ...
Court of First Instance issued an international arrest warrant for Suha, relating to corruption in a business deal that involved the former Tunisian first lady, Leila Ben Ali, in 2006. Initially, Suha proclaimed her complete cooperation with the Tunisian prosecutors but shortly thereafter she denounced the prosecution as a Tunisian scheme to defame her and the Palestinian cause. She was, at the time, living in Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
. She also denied reports that she had any money or property belonging to the Palestinian national cause, and she said that she opposed normalization of relations with Israel.
Other activities
On 27 November 2012, at the behest of Suha, Arafat's body was exhumed in the West Bank, in order to have samples taken from his remains. The purpose of the exhumation, according to Suha, was to determine whether he was poisoned with polonium
Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84. Polonium is a chalcogen. A rare and highly radioactive metal with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to selenium and tellurium, though its metallic character ...
.
As of 2011, she was living with her daughter in Malta.
After Arafat's death, Suha and Zahwa argued in French courts that Arafat had been murdered, possibly by poisoning. They lost their lawsuits and appeals, and in 2017 they took their case to the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR or ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The court hears applications alleging that ...
, claiming that the French authorities did not give their case a fair trial by refusing to include additional expert evidence. In 2021, the Court rejected their appeal as inadmissible.
See also
* Palestinian Christians
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arafat, Suha
1963 births
Living people
First Ladies of the State of Palestine
Palestinian women in politics
Yasser Arafat
Palestinian Sunni Muslims
Converts to Islam from Roman Catholicism
People from Jerusalem