WUNRN
PALESTINE-GAZA - WOMEN'S CHALLENGES
- REPORT - POVERTY, HEALTH, RESILIENCE
Direct Link to 2012 24-Page Report:
GAZA CITY, Mar 7 2013
(IPS) - “In Gaza we don’t lead normal lives, we just cope, and adapt
to our abnormal lives under siege and occupation,” says Dr. Mona El-Farra, a
physician and a long-time human rights and women’s rights activist in the Gaza
Strip. On International Women’s Day, when many of the world’s women are
fighting for workplace equality and an end to domestic violence, Farra and the
majority of
“It is
difficult to live in this small piece of land, where basic needs like clean
water, regular electricity, proper sanitation and means of recreation are not
met. Women in
A 2009 Palestinian Centre for
Human Rights (PCHR) report highlights the suffering of Palestinian women under
the illegal Israeli-led siege imposed on
The report, ‘Through Women’s
Eyes’, notes Gazan women’s continued struggle “as
they attempt to come to terms with their grief and their injuries; with the
loss of their children, their husbands, their relatives, their homes, and their
livelihoods.”
For Hiba an-Nabaheen, 24, a
media studies graduate from
“How can a woman whose husband
has died or been imprisoned continue to take care of her children? The deadly
Israeli wars we endure don’t compare to the growing poverty we face. I’m a
university graduate and can’t find work, and many graduates like me face the
same problem, including those with exceptionally high marks.”
From a family of ten, Nabaheen
is the only child to have yet gotten a degree. “My father is disabled and
cannot work, and my siblings are younger than me. Even my sister who has a 98
percent average in high school won’t find any work when she finishes
university.”
Um Oday, 30, would love to
work. “I have three young children to care for, but my husband is very
supportive of me working, if I found work. In addition to my university
education, I’ve taken different training courses in the hope that I’ll find
work. But in
Tagreed Jummah, director of
“The siege affects us all, but
it especially affects women,” says Jummah. “In recent years, more women have
been forced to become heads of the family because their husbands have been
killed, are in Israeli prisons, or are unemployed as a result of the siege. But
the majority of these women have no means of earning money.”
An August 2012 United Nations
(UN) report, Gaza in 2020: A liveable place? cites
unemployment as “higher than in the late 1990s.” The report highlights the
impact on women, whose unemployment rate in early 2012 was 47 percent.
For Malaka Mohammed, 22, an
English Literature graduate from
“In
For the past over ten years,
“Studying abroad is very
expensive, so I am searching for a scholarship, but even then I will be among
thousands of people applying.”
Rana Baker, studying business
administration at the Islamic University, and a freelance journalist, is active
on numerous political issues facing Palestinians.
“To be honest, when it comes to
the impact of
“When
But women do have particular
problems. The siege-manufactured poverty leading 80 percent of
A June 2012 joint report by Medical Aid for
Palestinians (MAP) and Save the Children notes that anaemia affects 36.8
percent of pregnant women in
For UPWC’s Tagreed Jummah, the
Palestinian woman “represents Palestinian resilience, resistance, is strong,
and is a mirror of the Palestinian struggle and steadfastness. We’ve lost
families, children, and suffer under the closures and Israeli army attacks. We
carry all of the suffering of our people, but we continue living and continue
resisting.”
In its report on the suffering
of Gazan women, PCHR highlights that prospects will not improve until the siege
on
“The dire economic situation
means that many women and their families are sliding deeper and deeper into
abject poverty. They have suffered the horrors of an illegal war, and now are
struggling just to survive.”