2005 Amman Vacancy

2005 Amman Vacancy

2005 Amman Vacancy

Suad Amiry is an architect, and the founder and director of RIWAQ : the Centre for Architectural Conservation in Ramallah. Her memoir is a collection of diaries and e-mail correspondences that span 1981-2004.

Sharon and my Mother-in-Law is divided into two chronologically organized parts that detail Amiry’s life in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Part One is a vivid account of Amiry’s life since she left Amman, Jordan in 1981 heading towards the occupied town of Ramallah to work as a Professor at Beirzeit University. Part Two includes Amiry’s personal war diaries during the period from November 2001 to September 2002. Amiry considers writing the latter diaries as a ‘form of therapy’ she resorted to in order to express her feelings and to release the tension caused and intensified by Ariel Sharon and her mother-in-law. This part of the book is originally based on e-mails that Amiry used to send to her intimate friends who were anxious to know how she manages to run her day-to-day activities under the occupation and the suffocating curfews.

Lifetime Journey

Amiry’s trip to Ramallah, which was supposed to last for just six months, turned out to be a lifetime journey after she fell in love, married and created a successful social and professional life there.