Biography
Zahira Kamal is the general director of Palestinian Women’s Research and Documentation Center, a UNESCO project. She was the first minister of Women’s Affairs in the Palestinian Cabinet and established the first Gender Planning and Development directorate at the ministry of Planning. She is a board member of several organizations, including the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling, Palestinian Business Women's Association- Asalla, and the International Women's Commission for Just Peace between Palestinian and Israeli people. She was one of the three women in the early 1990s negotiations with Israel. From 1992 to 1997, she served as coordinator of the Women’s Affairs Technical Committee. Ms. Kamal was a founding member of the Palestinian Federation of Women’s Action and has also served on the boards of several women's organizations including Jerusalem Link and the Jerusalem Center for Women. Ms. Kamal has written a number of articles and studies on Palestinian women, women’s empowerment, peace and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, women and citizenship, and enhancing the role of women. She received a bachelor’s degree in physics and chemistry from Ain Shams University, Cairo, and high diplomas in education from Jordanian University and Leicester University. (02.2010)