Palestine, Women, and Resistance

/ historicallywoman

Originally posted on Instagram 20th October 2023

Women have been part of Palestinian resistance and its fight for liberation since its inception. They protested alongside the men during the British occupation, they protected their families after Israel took over in 1948, and they have long been active participants in politics.

Yet we don’t know about them. So, here are nine stories of Palestinian women, from the 1890s to the present day. Please note these short biographies will not contain all relevant information.

Karimeh Abbud – 1893-1940

Photography was an area historically reserved for men. But when Karimeh Abbud (born in Bethlehem on 18th November 1893) received a camera for her 17th birthday, she didn’t let that stop her. Karimeh set up a home studio and flourished in her career, proving to the world what exactly Arab women were capable of.

She began by taking photos of women and children as well as weddings and other events. Her work became in high demand and, in 1924, she described herself as the ‘only national photographer’.

Later, she turned to documenting Palestine itself, combatting the British-Zionist colonial image of the country as an empty, desolate land. Karimeh’s images showed a vibrant, populated Palestine, and Zionist militias destroyed her studio as a result.

Kareimeh Abbud died of a fever on 27th April 1940, aged 46.

Sadhij Nassar – 1900-1970

Born in Haifa, now the third-largest city in Israel, Sadhij Nassar was a strong believer in Palestinian liberation. She began her career as a journalist in 1923, writing for local newspaper Al-Karmel, which was founded by her husband. Three years later, she herself founded The Women’s Magazine, which focused on social issues.

Sadhij was known for her liberal views, her articles encouraging families to raise their children equally, no matter their gender, and promoting fair access to education and work. She participated in various Arab forums and encouraged Palestinian women to become involved with politics.

In 1938, Sadhij became the first Palestinian woman arrested by the British Mandate when she was sentenced for her activism. She spent 11 months in jail before a local campaign turned international secured her freedom.

She died in exile in Damascus, Syria.

Zulaykha al-Shihabi – 1903-1992

As a child in Jerusalem, Zulaykha attended, along with her sisters, a prominent school to learn science and languages. She was a member of an ancient family and she was raised with a comprehensive knowledge of her city and its history – knowledge which she passed on to her fellow students.

Alongside a fellow Palestinian feminist , Zulaykha organised a campaign to teach young girls how to read and write for free. She was also present at the first Arab Women’s Congress in Jerusalem and she took a leading role during the 1936-39 general strikes.

One of Zulaykha’s greatest achievements was the creation of a first aid field committee. The Women’s Union also set up a health clinic, provided free inoculation against disease, cared for pregnant women and children, and helped secure shelter for orphans.

She worked at union events across the world and was active up until her death at the age of 89.

Hind al-Husseini – 1916-1994

Hind al-Husseini worked primarily as a teacher, tutoring young Palestinian women, until the 1940s when she turned to social work, co-launching the Women’s Solidarity Society and becoming co-ordinator of the Arab Women’s Union. Soon after, something happened which cemented her as a hero in Palestinian history.

Walking past a church in April 1948, Hind found a group of 55 children. They were survivors of a massacre and they had no homes or family left. Hind found them shelter and visited them everyday to bring them food and check on their wellbeing.

Later, she converted a family mansion into an orphanage for the children and set up other orphanages across the country. They provided education for children, including two Jewish girls who weren’t accepted elsewhere. Hind was a strong advocate for women’s education and, in 1982, set up a college for women.

Hind al-Husseini died in Jerusalem, aged 78.

Fadwa Tuqan – 1917-2003

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Poet of Palestine’, Fadwa Tuqan was born into a family which held conservative views towards women. Her brother, however, himself a poet, educated her and introduced her to poetry. He encouraged her to publish her work, though he would tragically die when Fadwa was still young.

Her poetry chronicled the suffering of the Palestinian people, and her first book, Alone With the Days, was particularly influenced by her experience of being expelled from her land in the 1948 Nakba. This volume also deals with Palestinian women’s experiences and the hardships suffered by women in the male-dominated Arab world.

Fadwa studied in England for two years but she maintained her focus on the Palestinian plight, and she often spoke against the Israeli occupation. From 1967, her poetry focused on life under Israeli rule.

Fadwa died during the Second Intifada, aged 85/86.

Samiha Khalil – 1923-1999

The Joss Dray Collection, Palestinian Museum Digital Archive

Born in Anabta, Samiha Khalil was forced to flee with her husband to Gaza after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. She was involved in national issues from the 1950s onwards and she rose to prominence in 1965 when she founded the al-Inaash al-Usra society, which became Palestine’s largest and most effective welfare organisation.

After the Israeli takeover of Gaza and the West Bank in 1967, Samiha took on an essential role in the national resistance and, ten years later, she became the first and only woman member of the National Front Committee.

During the 1980s, Samiha was detained no less than six times by the IDF after being tied to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and she was put under house arrest and banned from travelling for twelve years. Two of her children were deported from Israel and the other three, who were out of the country, were banned from returning.

Samiha died on 26th February 1999, aged 75/76.

Samira Azzam – 1927-1967

Though born into an orthodox Christian family, Samira Azzam would become a pioneer of Arab-Palestinian women’s activism, named by a critic as ‘the princess of the Arab tale’.

Samira began publishing articles in Palestinian newspapers in the early 1940s, but she was forced to flee to Lebanon after the Nakba. She also briefly lived in Iraq, where she became a radio broadcaster, her voice becoming a familiar presence in many Arab people’s lives.

Samira wrote extensively for much of her life, her stories revolving around the Palestinian experience in the diaspora. Her political views were initially masked, but it became increasingly clear that her writing was an allegory for the Palestinian struggle.

Her major political activism began in the 1960s, and she took an active part in building the core of the Palestine Liberation Front. She worked tirelessly for the Front as the leader of its women’s branch until her sudden death of a heart attack on 8th August 1967, aged 39.

Khadija Abu Shreifa – c.1952-present (presumed)

Shatha Hammad/Al Jazeera

In 2017, a 65-year-old Khadija Abu Shreifa recounted her experiences of the First Intifada to news organisation Al Jazeera.

Khadija lived in the Jalazone refugee camp which lies just north of Ramallah, Palestine’s administrative capital. Some time after 1970 – Khadija didn’t remember the date – the men and women of the camp launched a demonstration which ended in violent suppression.

After attempting to rescue a group of young girls from harassment by Israeli soldiers, Khadija was attacked, beaten, and shot in the shoulder and foot. Other women of the camp rescued her and bound her wounds, and she was later smuggled out of the Ramallah hospital when soldiers came to arrest her.

Upon her return to Jalazone, Khadija continued her activism, fetching food from outside the camp despite a curfew and distributing it amongst the refugees.

Razan al-Najjar – 1997-2018

Razan al-Najjar was born in a town on the Gaza Strip where a concrete wall protected residents of the area from Israeli gunfire. She grew up witness to three wars, the last of which in 2014 destroyed her neighbourhood.

She trained in nursing and became a paramedic at Khan Yunis at Nasser Hospital. She was also a member of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, an NGO. Wearing the distinctive white coat to mark her as a medic, Razan would tend to those wounded at the border fence during Ramadan.

Razan was proud of her work and was proud of demonstrating that a woman could be as brave as a man.

On 1st June 2018, Razan was one of five medics working at the border. They had taken precautions to make sure they were clearly marked as medics; Israeli soldiers fired on the team anyway. Razan was shot in the chest.

She was twenty years old.

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