Mrs. Jehan Rajab passed away earlier this week. She was the co-founder of the Tareq Rajab Museum and the New English School.
While a student in the United Kingdom, Tareq Sayed Rajab met his future wife, Jehan Wellborne, who from her childhood was interested in folklore and particularly the arts and life of exotic peoples and minorities.
They got married in 1955 and after their return to Kuwait; Mr. Rajab was appointed as the first Director of the Department of Antiquities and Museums of Kuwait. He resigned from his post in 1969 and together with his wife opened the New English School for Kuwaiti and foreign children. By then they were already involved in collecting material for a future Museum of their own.
They travelled all over the Islamic world and beyond to Central and South-East Asia and the Far East, collecting artefacts and photographing monuments, peoples, their customs, everything they believed could be used and exhibited in a museum. As a result of their hard work and research, they were able to open the Museum to the public in 1980. [Source]
The photo on top of Mrs. Jehan was taken outside the New English School following liberation of Kuwait from Iraq. The photo was taken from the Al Jazeera Class of 1990 documentary [Here]
11 replies on “R.I.P. Jehan Rajab”
Allah yir7amha
Typo in first sentence. Just FYI (weeek)
thanks fixed
الله يرحمها
Such a loss when people like that leave. May god bless her soul…
RIP 🙁
“exotic peoples…” Serioulsy? Besides the spelling/grammar mistake, this is an ugly thing to say about someone. Makes her sound like a colonial fetishist
Such a loss. She was very much involved in the schools work. Allah yrhamha
She was such a lovely lady. She will be missed. RIP
After spending five years in Kuwait I was privaliged to visit both Museams and was very impressed. Dedegation and hard work. I am happy to say I bought the books which are a great
memory of our time in Kuwait. Bless you. Bea Sykes
Very sad news indeed. Such a remarkable lady. RIP.