Amal Al Khedairy (Born 1935)[1] is an Iraqi academic, writer, 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 host many exhibitions of the work of Iraqi artists, as well as concerts and lectures; being the only institution of its kind in Baghdad to do so during the 90's.[4]
Born in Damascus, Syria 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.[1]
Fluent in Arabic, English and French, with conversational Turkish and Spanish, Khedairy has been a lecturer at both the University of Baghdad and the American University of Beirut.[1]