Rawya Shawa
Palestinian journalist and politician
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Rawya Rashad Said al-Shawa (Arabic: راوية الشوا, December 1944 – 3 July 2017) was a Palestinian journalist and politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the Legislative Council in 1996.
Rawya Shawa | |
|---|---|
| |
| Member of the Legislative Council | |
| In office 1996–2017 | |
| Constituency | Gaza |
| Personal details | |
| Born | December 1944 |
| Died | 3 July 2017 (aged 72) |
Biography
Shawa was born in the Shuja'iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City in December 1944 to a Lebanese mother and Palestinian father. Her father Rashad was mayor of Gaza from 1972 to 1982. She married Aoun Saadi al-Shawa (who succeeded her father as mayor), with whom she had four children.[1] Having graduated with a literature degree from the American University in Cairo in 1964,[2] she worked as a journalist for the al-Nahar al-Maqdasiya and al-Quds newspapers.[citation needed]
In the 1996 elections to the Legislative Council, she ran as an independent candidate in Gaza, and was one of five women elected, becoming the first female Palestinian MPs.[3] She was re-elected in 2006 on the Independent Palestine list.[2]
She died in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on 3 July 2017.[4]