Zahwa arafat biography template

A longtime bachelor who declared himself "married to the revolution," a then 62-year-old Yasser Arafat, stunned Palestinians when he wed his 28-year-old private secretary, Suha, in a secret ceremony in Tunisia in 1991.

The couple's daughter, Zahwa, named for Arafat's mother, was born in Paris in July 1995.

When Suha Arafat first went to Gaza City with her husband in July 1994 -- following the leader's return from a 26-year exile -- few thought the Sorbonne-educated, stylishly coifed blonde partial to French haute couture outfits would settle down in the less-than-cosmopolitan Gaza Strip.

But she surprised critics by making a home there.

She developed a public life of her own, opened institutes for sick and handicapped children and hosted foreign dignitaries.

In a 1999 interview with a French magazine, Arafat described their starkly simple wedding It took place in a PLO bunker with no white wedding dress or reception.

She said that