IT COULD not have been easy being the daughter of Yasser Arafat, the late Palestinian leader.

“I remember that he was busy with people, everyone wanted to speak with him,” Zahwa Arafat said last week in her first interview. “I spent most of my time with my mum.”

She remembers Arafat as a “very kind” man who would phone her regularly to ask about school. “He told me I should always work hard on my Arabic,” she said.

Zahwa said she would never forget the death of her father. She had been told by her aunt to stay at home that day instead of going to school.

“I was pleased,” she said. “Then my mother called. She was crying a lot. I asked her what was wrong and she told me my father had died. I burst into tears and ran to my room. I closed the door.”

The pictures of a tearful Zahwa being comforted by her mother Suha at the funeral were seen all over the world. Asked what was going through her mind at that moment, she said: “I was thinking that my father was lying inside the coffin not able to get out . . . The music played by the bands made me cry and cry – it was just so sad. I never want to attend a funeral again.”

She comes from a world of political dynasties but insisted she had no interest in politics. This was not surprising, perhaps, given her experiences of war and exile at an early age.

“I want to be a business-woman or an actor,” she said, “never a politician. I don’t like politics. I hate politics. I am an ordinary girl. I just want to be free.”

She went on: “I am so young – everyday I want to be something else. I would like to be a painter of abstracts because it’s fantasy and far from reality.

“I want to learn more languages [she speaks Arabic, French and English and is studying Italian] and travel.”

Asked about the significance of Arafat, she sounds like any Palestinian child: “He’s a leader, a fighter, a man beloved by his people.”

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?