Born: 8 October 1946, Palestine
Died: NA
Country most active: Palestine
Also known as: Arabic: حنان داوود مخايل عشراوي, Hanan Mikhail
Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician, activist and scholar who served as a member of the Leadership Committee and as an official spokesperson of the Palestinian delegation to the Middle East peace process, starting with the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991. Ashrawi was appointed as the Palestinian Authority Minister of Higher Education and Research in 1996, after having served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts at Birzeit University and head of its Legal Aid Committee since the mid-1970s.
Representing Jerusalem, Ashrawi was elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council in 1996, and she was re-elected in 2006. She made history as the first woman to hold a seat in the highest executive body in Palestine when she was elected to the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 2009; she was re-elected in 2018.
As an activist, Ashrawi founded the Independent Commission for Human Rights in 1994, serving as its Commissioner-General until 1995. In 1998, she founded MIFTAH, the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy, and continues to serve as head of its Board of Directors. The following year, she founded the National Coalition for Accountability and Integrity (AMAN).
Ashrawi serves on advisory and international boards of several global, regional and local organizations focused on addressing issues such as human rights, women’s rights, policy formation, peacemaking and nation-building.
Ashrawi has received awards from all over the world, including the distinguished French decoration, “d’Officier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur” in 2006; the 2005 Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation; the 2003 Sydney Peace Prize; the 2002 Olof Palme Prize; the 1999 International Women of Hope “Bread and Roses”; the Defender of Democracy Award – Parliamentarians for Global Action; the 50 Women of the Century; the 1996 Jane Addams International Women’s Leadership Award; the Pearl S. Buck Foundation Women’s Award; the 1994 Pio Manzu Gold Medal Peace Award; and the 1992 Marissa Bellisario International Peace Award.
She has written several books, articles, poems and short stories about Palestinian politics, culture and literature. Her book This Side of Peace (1995) earned worldwide recognition. In addition to her Doctor of Philosophy degree in Medieval and Comparative Literature, she is the recipient of eleven honorary doctorates from universities in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Arab world.