Her father was Jamal al-Husayni (himself a second cousin of the then Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini), her maternal grandfather was Mayor of Jerusalem Faidi al-Alami, and her maternal uncle was Musa al-Alami.
[1] She married Munib Shahid, son of a noble family of Baháʼí lineage, in 1944 and they settled down in Beirut.
[3] Her other two daughters, Maya and Zeina, designed and promoted Palestinian Embroideries for Inaash.
She, together with Huguette Caland, helped found the Association for the Development of Palestinian Camps, a.k.a.
[citation needed] Her autobiography, Jerusalem Memories, was published in 2000, and was described by Malu Halasa as having "broke[n] with tradition".