Rawya Shawa

Rawya Rashad Said al-Shawa was a Palestinian journalist and politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the Palestinian [Legislative Council|Legislative Council] in 1996.

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, with whom she had four children. Having graduated with a literature degree from the [American University in Cairo] in 1964, she worked as a journalist for the al-Nahar al-Maqdasiya and al-Quds newspapers.
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. She was re-elected in 2006 on the Independent Palestine list.
She died in al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza on 3 July 2017.