Sumaya Farhat Naser

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Dr. Sumaya Farhat Naser (arabic سمية فرحات ناصر, * June 11th, 1948 in Bir Zeit near Jerusalem) is a Palestinian peace activist in the Westbank.

The Palestinian Christian woman visited the boarding school Talitha Kumi of German deaconesses in Beit Jala near Bethlehem. After she gained general qualification for university entrance she studied biology, geography and education at the University of Hamburg Germany and received a doctor's degree in applied botany.

Between 1982 and 1997 she was a university lecturer for botany and ecology at the Palestinian Birzeit University north of Ramallah. Between 1997 and 2001 she was the manager of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Women, doing peace work together with the Israeli group Bat Shalom.

Sumaya Farhat-Naser is known for her precise expressions of opinion towards media, and particularly for her various projects, in which she motivates Palestinian women to work on a peaceful resolution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

[edit] Publications

• "Thymian und Steine", Autobiography, Lenos Verlag, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-85787-657-3
• "Daughter of the Olive Trees", Lenos Verlag, Basel 2002, ISBN 3-85787-326-4

[edit] Awards

• 1989 Doctor of Honor of the Theological Faculty of the University of Münster/Germany
• 1995 Bruno-Kreisky-Award for merits on Human Rights
• 1997 Mount Zion Award for Reconciliation
• 1997 Evangelical Book Award
• 2000 Peace Award of the City of Augsburg
• 2002 Hermann-Kesten-Medaille of the P.E.N.-Center
• 2002 Solidarity Award of the city of Bremen
• 2003 Profax-Preis of Pädagogische Hochschule Zürich

see also [1]