Jamila Ahmed Khamis Saidam (, 1947 – 30 July 2011), also known as Umm Sabri, was a Palestinian politician. She was one of the first group of women elected to the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

in 1996.

Biography

Saidam was born in the village of Aqir in 1947.جميلة صيدم
VIZYON During the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

her family fled to

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

,جميلة صيدم في ذاكرة الشعب الجماعية
Sirajuna where she attended a

UNWRA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a United Nations System, UN agency that supports the relief and Human development (economics), human development of Palestinian refugee ...

primary school and then secondary school in Rafah. She postponed attending university after marrying Mamdouh Saidam, a founding member of

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

, in 1968. In the same year, she moved to

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

and attended the founding conference of the

General Union of Palestinian Women The General Union of Palestinian Women (GUPW or GUPWom) is the official representative of Palestinian people, Palestinian women within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The GUPW's executive committee consists of several members includi ...

. The couple moved to Syria, where Saidam began studying at

Damascus University Damascus University () is the largest and oldest university in Syria, located in the capital Damascus, with campuses in other Syrian cities. It was founded in 1923 as the Syrian University () through the merger of the Faculty of Medicine of Dama ...

, but with her husband increasingly involved in militant activities, she was unable to complete her studies. However, Mamdouh died in 1971, and Saidam graduated from Damascus University in 1981. Saidam later lived in Lebanon and Tunisia. In 1989 she was elected to Fatah's Revolutionary Council, and following the

Oslo Accords The Oslo Accords are a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO): the Oslo I Accord, signed in Washington, D.C., in 1993; and the Oslo II Accord, signed in Taba, Egypt, in 1995. They marked the st ...

, she was allowed to return to the Gaza Strip in 1994, where she co-founded the General Women's Union in Gaza. In 1995 she was appointed Director General of Social Insurance at the Ministry of Labour. In the 1996 elections to the Legislative Council, Saidam ran as a Fatah candidate in

Deir al-Balah Deir al-Balah or Deir al Balah () is a city in the center of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the administrative capital of the Deir al-Balah Governorate. It is located over south of Gaza City. The city had a population of 75,132 in 2017. The ci ...

. She was one of five women elected, becoming the first female Palestinian MPs. During her term in office, she chaired the Refugee Committee from 2005 to 2006, and was a member of the Economic and Human Rights committees. She lost her seat in the

2006 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2006. * Elections in 2006 * Electoral calendar 2006 * 2006 Acehnese regional election * 2006 American Samoan legislative election * 2006 Bahraini parliamentary election * 2006 Costa Rican presidential e ...

. She died in

Ramallah Ramallah ( , ; ) is a Palestinians, Palestinian city in the central West Bank, that serves as the administrative capital of the State of Palestine. It is situated on the Judaean Mountains, north of Jerusalem, at an average elevation of abov ...

in July 2011. Her son Sabri later served as Minister of Education.The man behind the future of education in Palestine
Al-Monitor, 2 February 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saidam, Jamilah 1947 births Palestinian refugees Damascus University alumni Fatah members Palestinian civil servants 20th-century women civil servants Members of the 1996 Palestinian Legislative Council 20th-century Palestinian women politicians 2011 deaths Recipients of Grand Collar of Palestine 21st-century Palestinian women politicians 20th-century Palestinian politicians 21st-century Palestinian politicians