Granny gets university degree at 85

Palestinian Jihad Battu graduates with a BA in Islamic Studies

When it comes to chasing your dreams, it’s never too late, and for one Palestinian woman, this meant never giving up on graduating from college.

Jihad Battu, an 85-year-old Palestinian grandmother from Nazareth has graduated with BA in Islamic Studies from the College of Sharia, Kafr Bara, making history as the college’s oldest graduate.

Battu was born in 1936 in the West Bank city of Nablus. She was named Jihad by her family, an Arabic name meaning “struggle or fight against the enemy.”

She went to a school in Al Mujaydil, near Nazareth, until 1948, when the Nakba took place and Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes, according to media reports.

In the same year 1948, Battu’s mother became very sick, and Jihad was forced to drop out of school. In 1954, Jihad married and had five children. However, her passion for learning never died. She took several courses in Arabic, English and Hebrew, as well as courses in mathematics.

At the age of 81, this Palestinian woman was still enthusiastic about studying. She decided to enroll in a college to obtain a university degree and wear a graduation gown and she just did so recently.

In an interview, Jihad said that she chose to study Sharia because of her love and devotion to the Islamic traditions and rules.