You read a lot, you live with what you write. Those who read it- read, and then you start writing something new. You stop, and ask yourself: why write when everyone is racing for scribbles?.. You wonder, should I continue? There are those who insist on their ‘yes’. But my question is, should I continue? and why?
Aida Najjar, 2019
Dr. Aida Najjar was a writer and socioeconomic researcher, born in Lifta village in Jerusalem Palestine in December 1938. She left with her family for Jordan in 1948 after the Nakba, and later obtained her university degree from Cairo in Sociology in 1960. Aida finished her Master’s degree in Journalism and Development from the University of Kansas in the United States, and a PhD in Mass Communication from Syracuse University in New York.
Aida worked with the United Nations Development Program and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and helped found the Research Division of the Kuwait News Agency.
In Jordan, she worked in the field of sustainable development and strategic planning in the Ministries of Information, Foreign Affairs, and Social Development.
Aida published many writings and books especially in the historical field, documenting her memories with great love for the details about life in Palestine before the Nakba, and life in Amman. She published several works in media and journalism, and has literary and creative contributions published in literary magazines such as Afkar magazine, Awraq magazine, Taiki magazine, and The Arab Thought Forum magazine, as well as many newspapers like Addustour and Alrai. In addition to her outstanding research effort in many of the studies that she published in specialised magazines and local and Arab newspapers, she also presented at local, regional and international conferences.
Aida was very active in social, cultural, developmental fields, women’s issues, and more. She held membership in many cultural bodies, including: The Jordanian Writers Association, The General Union of Arab Writers, The Arab Thought Forum, and the Jerusalem Forum.
Aida received the Best Book Award in Humanities from Philadelphia University in 2005 for her book “Press of Palestine and the National Movement in Half a Century “, and also received the Best Arab Book Award at the XIII Cultural Festival held in Bahrain in 2006 for the same book.
Aida Najjar’s published books include:
– Press of Palestine and the National Movement in Half a Century (1900–1948)
– Jerusalem and the Fair Girl
– Noble Lifta
– The Love Song of Azooz: Palestinian Stories from a Thousand and One Stories
– Amman, a Trip Down Memory Lane
– Amman School Girls of Long Ago
Dr. Aida Al-Najjar passed on February 5th, 2020 at the age of 81.