Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Serene Husseini Shahid was born in Jerusalem as a member of the influential Husayni family. Her father was Jamal al-Husayni, her maternal grandfather was Mayor of Jerusalem Faidi al-Alami, and her maternal uncle was Musa al-Alami. She was educated at the Ramallah Friends School in Ramallah, later at the American University of Beirut. After 1967 she became involved in starting "cottage industries" among the Palestinian refugees. She worked on embroidery projects for Palestinian women, conducting embroidery workshops on weekdays.