Mysterious deaths of prominent sisters shock Jordan
Jordanian police are investigating the deaths of two prominent and successful sisters after their bodies were found together at the base of a building under construction in Amman.
The deaths of Soraya Salti, 44, a mother of one, and Jumana, 37, have shocked and baffled Jordanians and led to an outpouring of grief from friends and colleagues.
Soraya spearheaded Injaz Al Arab, an education initiative that promoted entrepreneurship across the Arab world. Jumana was a director at PricewaterhouseCoopers based in the UAE since 2008.
The sisters were playing golf at the Bisharat Golf Club in an Amman suburb on Friday, the day their bodies were found, family acquaintances said. One of the sisters was wearing a blue jacket and jeans. Another was wearing a crimson top and jeans.
An Egyptian janitor working at a nearby building found their bodies after he heard a thud and called the police. Police are still trying to determine the cause of their deaths, reports said. On Saturday a forensic autopsy showed that the bodies had multiple fractures. Samples of their tissues are being examined at the morgue and at a criminal lab, Roya TV reported.
Little information has been provided by the police about the case and local media have reported that the two sisters committed suicide together by throwing themselves off the tall building under construction in Jwiedeh, a rundown area of southern Amman near a prison.
But many in Jordan, including close friends, reject that they would have killed themselves, especially considering their successful careers. In particular, the nature of their deaths has fuelled widespread speculation that they were murdered.
“I find it difficult to believe that they have committed suicide,” Marwan Muasher, a former foreign minister and former deputy prime minister, wrote on his Facebook page. “I knew both and they were full of life and loved life. I was Jumana’s basketball coach when she was eight.”
Naseem Tarawneh, a well-known Jordanian blogger, said: “Jordan, and indeed the Arab world, has lost … two leaders. They will be surely missed and eternally remembered. What a heavy loss.”
In 2013, Soraya was named as one of the 100 most powerful Arab women by Arabian Business.
She served as senior vice president of Injaz Al Arab, a non-profit organisation that promotes youth education and training in the Arab World. It is part of the Junior Achievement Worldwide NGO.
“Injaz Al Arab is devastated by the passing of our founder and inspiration, Soraya Salti,” the organisation said on Facebook. “She will be remembered as a dreamer that dared to create new opportunities for Arab youth across the region. To date, the organisation she created has affected over 2,000,000 youth. We all mourn her loss today and our prayers are with her family.”
In 2006, she won the Schwab Social Entrepreneur award for Jordan, became a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum and was the first Arab woman to win the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009.
Jumana was part of the government and public sector strategy team at PricewaterhouseCoopers, managing the education and non-profit Middle East Group, according to her LinkedIn account. In 2006 she earned a master’s degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Before that, she worked at the Jordanian Royal Court for four years on economic and socio-economic national strategies.
The two women both hold American citizenship from their mother Rebecca Salti.
Source: www.thenational.ae