Yusra Al Barbari

Following her graduation Al Barbari worked as a teacher in Gaza which was under Egyptian administration.^[3] Then she served as an inspector at girls' schools and developed an educational program for female teacher training. Based on this program the Women Teachers Institute was established in Gaza.^[1] She also served as the president of the Open University for Women in the Gaza Strip.^[6]

Al Barbari continued to participate in demonstrations against Israel in the 1950s.^[1] She was part of the first Palestinian delegation to visit the United Nations along with Haidar Abdel-Shafi and Ibrahim Abu Sitta in 1963.^[1] Al Barbari was elected as a member of the first Palestine National Council organized in Jerusalem in May 1964 during which the PLO was formed.^[3] The same year she was involved in the establishment of the Women's Union of Gaza and became its president.^[6] The Union took part in the conference which established the General Union of Palestinian Women in Jerusalem in 1965.^[3] She served in the delegations of the Federation of Women's Voluntary Societies in 1991.^[7]

Al Barbari was elected as the executive secretary of the Gaza Red Crescent Society in 1973 and later, served as a member of its board of directors.^[3] She also served as a member of the Veterans' Society and the Society for the Disabled in the Gaza Strip.^[1][6]

Israel banned Al Barbari's travels due to her political activities in the 1970s.^[5] She was among the signatories of a document dated September 1977 calling for the foundation of a Palestinian state under the authority of the PLO.^[8]

Al Barbari spoke fluently Arabic, English, and French.^[1]

Al Barbari died in Gaza City on 13 May 2009 and was buried in the Martyrs Cemetery in Gaza City.^[1] She was posthumously awarded the Star of Jerusalem Medal by the General Union of Palestinian Women on 21 May 2009.^[1]

Al Barbari was featured along with four other Palestinian women in a 1991 documentary entitled L’espoir voilé (French: The Veiled Hope) directed by Norma Marcos.^[4][9] Al Barbari's portrait was one of the paintings in the six-month solo exhibition of the Palestinian artist Malak Mattar at the Garden Court Chambers, London, in 2023.^[5]