[1] Hassan was born in London, Ontario, to a Lebanese immigrant family and grew up in an Arabic speaking household with ten siblings.
[2] Her maternal grandfather and her father travelled from mountain villages in Lebanon to North America in the early 1900s, fleeing Turkish military conscription and World War I.
[2][7] Extensive travel continues to enrich her work, which often reflects this artist's respect for popular, traditional and indigenous art forms.
It addresses worldwide concerns on racism, the subjection of women, cultural interactions, colonialism and political conflicts.
[58] In 2018, OCAD University, Toronto conferred honorary doctorate degrees upon four prominent Canadians: visual artist Jamelie Hassan, fashion journalist Jeanne Beker, filmmaker David Cronenberg, and Dr. William Reichman, CEO of Baycrest Health Sciences.