Deena Hantuli

Deena Hantuli was born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, whose own parents were exiled from Silat Al-Dahr, Palestine (between Nablus and Jenin) after the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank. During the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, six-year-old Deena, her parents, and siblings fled to safety in Riverside, California, where her uncle lived and where they settled permanently. After graduating high school, Deena attended Riverside Community College and University of California, Riverside. In 2009, she met her husband Abdallah (another Mawtini narrator) and relocated to his adopted hometown of Santa Maria, where they live with their two young sons. Denna is completed her Teaching Credential at Cal Poly in 2026.