Cherien Dabis

Cherien Dabis
Born	1976 (age 40–41) Omaha, Nebraska
Occupation	Director, producer, writer
Genre	Fiction

Cherien Dabis (born 1976) (Arabic: شيرين دعيبس‎‎) is a Palestinian-American director, producer, and screenwriter. She was named one of Variety magazine's 10 Directors to Watch in 2009.

Dabis was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Her father is a physician of Palestinian descent, and her mother is from Salt, Jordan. Cherien grew up both in Ohio and Jordan.

Cherien grew up in a small town in Ohio, and spent many of her summers in Jordan. Cherien's father was a Palestinian refugee, and at the age of eight years, she visited Palestine for the first time. She and her family were held at the Israeli border for 12 hours, and she was strip-searched along with her sisters. This incident would make Cherien understand "what it meant to be Palestinian". She would not return to Palestine until 20 years later.

Back in the U.S, Cherien's hometown was populated predominantly by middle-class families from Germanic backgrounds. When she would come back from trips to the Middle East, she would be asked if there were telephones and cars back in Jordan. As a Palestinian American, Cherien refused to be seen as an outsider, and instead chose to assimilate to the culture she found herself within. However, when the Gulf War commenced in 1990, things changed for her and her family. Her father lost many of his patients, her mother was called an "Arab Bitch", and her family began receiving death threats. Although Cherien had no brothers, a rumour began that her father’s "son" was fighting in Saddam Hussein's army. It is also at this time that her family was investigated by the Secret Service because of a rumour that claimed her sister had threatened to Kill George H. W. Bush, who was the president at the time.

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