Asia Habash

Asia Abu al-Hajj (later Habash) was born in Jerusalem on March 28, 1936. Her parents, Ali and Wasila, had six children: Ribhi, Rif‘at, Hidaya, Samira, Amal, and Asia.

As a child, she studied at al-Ma’muniyya School for Girls in Jerusalem, but her high school education was disrupted when she and her family were displaced from the city during the Nakba. They briefly relocated to Egypt and then returned to Palestine, settling in Ramallah while it was under Jordanian rule.

Habash continued her studies at the Ramallah Friends School and received her bachelor’s degree in psychology and education from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 1958. She also received her master’s degree from AUB a year later and pursued a career in education in Palestine. With deep passion for education and social development, she later pursued her studies in the UK, earning a PhD in education from Bradford University. She was one of the few Palestinian women of her generation to achieve this academic milestone.

During her studies, she met her husband, Ziad, with whom she had two children, Dima and Samer.

Shortly after receiving her master’s degree, Habash returned to Palestine and started teaching at a teacher training college administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Ramallah in 1960. At 23, she was not only the youngest teacher among her peers but also the only woman in an all-male teacher training college.

Twelve years later, Habash was appointed assistant principal of the college, a position she held from 1972 to 1975. Thereafter, she became the director of the Women’s Training Center in Ramallah from 1975 until 1983, which also focused on Palestinian refugees.

On December 10, 1981, Habash was one of several teachers arrested by Israeli forces on the premise of condoning the right of female students to protest the Israeli occupation. These collective arrests targeted educators who spoke up against military aggression and educational suppression. Besides Habash, other Palestinian women educators and activists, such as Suad Ashour, Muna Mustafa, and Zoya Khalaf, were arrested on the same day.

In 1982, Habash was elected deputy chairperson of the National Mental Health Society (sometimes referred to as the Palestinian Mental Health Association). In 1985, she played a key role in establishing and heading the Early Childhood Resource Center in Jerusalem, with its headquarters now in Ramallah. This initiative was born out of dedication to creating a heathy environment for Palestinian children in their early stages of development, and to supporting and empowering them to achieve their fullest potential.

This was the first initiative to focus on the preschool education of children in Palestine, applying progressive methods, curriculums, tools, and resources to prepare children for excellence in school and beyond. Among others, methods included those of the renowned Brazilian educator and philosopher Paulo Freire, who advocated for a pedagogy that merges education with critical theory toward community outreach and parental empowerment, rehabilitation, psychological support, and social transformation.

Habash was a founding member of several intellectual and cultural organizations in Jerusalem that are to this day integral to critical thinking and research. She cofounded the Arab Thought Forum (1976–82), where she later served as research coordinator (1983–85). In 1979, she cofounded the Arab Studies Society in Jerusalem in the Orient House (see The Orient House: The Heart of Palestinian Political Presence in Jerusalem), an institution that continues to play a central role in cultural preservation and political research.

Between 1987 and 1991, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Palestinian Counseling Center, and in the 1990s, she was also on the board of the Tamer Institute for Community Education in Ramallah. Throughout her life, Habash remained committed to the Arab Women’s Association and to broader women’s movements across Palestine.

She also conducted extensive research related to pressing educational and social needs in Palestine. The projects she engaged in linked pedagogy with mental health and community resilience. Among her contributions was “Educational Reform in Palestine: Visions and Prospects,” a report written in Arabic, published by the media and educational coordination project in Ramallah in 1999.

She was a valuable member of the advisory committee on and great supporter of the Jerusalem Quarterly since its inception in Sheikh Jarrah and through its growth from the “Jerusalem File” into a full-fledged quarterly.