Soraida Husseinfounder of the Palestinian feminist organization Women’s Affairs Technical Committee (WATC), strives to chronicle the suffering of its people. His involvement as a direct victim of the Israeli attacks consolidates the need to denounce the constant and indiscriminate violence, with more than 42,000 people killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023. The stories he tells, experiences shared throughout Palestine, are heartbreaking.
Hussein, who lives in Ramallah, has participated in the preparation of a report by the organization Action-Aid Solidarity Alliance about the impact of the conflict on women and girls. The investigation vindicates their role and presents them not only as victims, but as leaders who have been forced to assume a role of endurance and resilience.
The study reaches a conclusion: violence translates differently depending on gender. However, Soraida Hussein has some nuances: “Sexist violence is not separated from the context. Paulo Freirewho is a Brazilian philosopher, taught us that there are two sides to violence. Whoever has more strength exercises it, the other defends himself. One of the sides is the Israeli violencebombs and destruction, and the weak side is society, a patriarchal society. “I would like to analyze gender violence in a larger context,” says the activist during an interview with Public.
“Those who remain alive, because we no longer talk about survivors of gender violence, we talk about survivors in what the full word means, they are in the tents. Many of them help each other, each other, and are finding protection inside the family“, describes the activist with a deep voice when emphasizing how women in especially vulnerable they manage to survive. “Aid organizations in Gaza are working to provide safe placesbut they cannot give psychological advice to women who come to ask for it. It’s as if they were first aid. It is, in fact, the first and only session that is held, because for the second and third the organization has had to change location to escape from the bombings“, he adds.
“Many of the women we spoke to do not have water, they do not have a place to bathe”
However, the scarcity of resources It doesn’t end there. There is a list of several products that they almost never enter the cities, and when they do they fail to reach everyone who needs them. “That’s what happens with sanitary padsthe brasthe panties… Women are not changing because they do not have clothes and, if there are any on the market, they are very expensive. Many of the women we spoke to do not have water, they do not have a place to bathe,” says the activist.
The arrival of aid is essential to face the harsh reality that exists in the Palestinian territories: “In a house with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a kitchen, 63 people lived together before they had to escape,” Hussein explains and emphasizes: “We urgently need humanitarian aidthat the humanitarian cordon remains open”.
The investigation of which Hussein has been a part states that “the women who live in the camps for displaced people in Gaza have taken on very demanding jobs: bring a home to a war zone“Indeed, they are the ones who, as the main care providersthey make sure their families can feed themselves. Sometimes even prioritizing them over themselves and their own rights.
Asked how they get Palestinian women to share their experiences despite everything around them, Hussein is clear: “There is no stigma when the whole society is suffering from the same perpetuator“, he clarifies, and adds: “There is, for example, a woman who began to write poems. When she escapes and leaves due to the bombings, she says that her most precious objects are her notebook and her pencil, because she no longer even knows where she is, her hair is already gray and his eyes are ruined from cryingbut she can write poems about what happens and about herself.”
How can we not lose hope, how is it possible to move forward and continue forward while maintaining the will to live? “Their dreams are the dreams of their children. Go back to their house, build it again. The dreams of those people are simple, they are human rights that have to be applied,” Hussein emphasizes.
“The millions of people who took to the streets this year screaming Free Palestine “They are the ones who maintain and preserve the humanity of all of us,” defends the activist. “The Palestinian people are paying for consequences that come from a imperialisma colonialism,—words that people use so much that they seem empty—and learn what is happening and raising your voice is a duty for humanity“he claims.
“What is happening in Gaza is a third world war”
This has to do with the role she believes women will play in the future reconstruction of Palestinian society. “The institutions will have to provide a lot of support and will be very important. In the political solution itself… There is not much voice for women, because what is happening in Gaza is a world war three. That’s why it’s going to be about a great solutionfrom outside Palestine and to talk about this our people must have the complete right to self-determination of your destiny“, he assures.
“The fire in Gaza must be put out immediately. The genocide against the Palestinian people must end,” concludes Hussein, but not before adding: “Human rights have a very bad reputation, here almost no one believes that there is anything called human rights, because they are trampling and that’s the fault of the governments and the superpowers“.
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