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The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

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I faced a great challenge <strong>to</strong> do well in school, <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> get the highest<br />

score in Gaza. <strong>The</strong> most important thing for me was <strong>to</strong> make my parents<br />

proud <strong>of</strong> me. <strong>The</strong> first year, I studied architectural engineering in Nablus.<br />

I lived there, because it was <strong>to</strong>o difficult <strong>to</strong> get out <strong>of</strong> Gaza, but during<br />

the First Intifada, it was <strong>to</strong>o complicated <strong>to</strong> travel inside the West Bank.<br />

During this time, Libya opened the door <strong>to</strong> students from Palestine <strong>to</strong><br />

complete their studies there. So I lived for seven years in Tripoli, studying<br />

medicine. <strong>The</strong>se years were wonderful; the quality <strong>of</strong> the studies<br />

was very high. <strong>The</strong>n I returned <strong>to</strong> Gaza, I got married, got my three babies,<br />

two daughters <strong>and</strong> a boy, <strong>and</strong> after that I decided <strong>to</strong> complete my stud -<br />

ies <strong>and</strong> entered a master’s programme in public health in Gaza, which I<br />

completed in 2006. In 1995, when I returned from Libya <strong>to</strong> Gaza, I was<br />

so happy <strong>to</strong> be a medical doc<strong>to</strong>r. I had the opportunity <strong>to</strong> live somewhere<br />

else, but this idea was a very far from my mind, since I wanted <strong>to</strong> serve<br />

my people in Gaza. I worked as a physician <strong>and</strong> general practitioner in<br />

primary healthcare, dealing mainly with women’s <strong>and</strong> children’s health.<br />

Since getting my master’s degree I started <strong>to</strong> manage health centres,<br />

<strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong>day I am responsible for six health centres providing care for<br />

350,000 Palestinian refugees living in Gaza City <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong> the north <strong>of</strong> it.<br />

We face many challenges every day. We are subject <strong>to</strong> constant constraints,<br />

<strong>and</strong> the burden <strong>of</strong> the crisis on the refugees is high, <strong>and</strong> getting<br />

higher, which increases the dem<strong>and</strong> for our interventions every day.<br />

That’s our situation <strong>to</strong>day in Gaza.<br />

Besides my work for the health service, I was elected by the UNRWA<br />

female staff as the chair <strong>of</strong> the UNRWA Gaza <strong>Women</strong>’s Committee,<br />

which was established in 2008. Our main goal working in the committee<br />

is <strong>to</strong> empower women working at UNRWA <strong>to</strong> reach their fullest potentials,<br />

<strong>and</strong> also <strong>to</strong> foster gender equality by helping the female staff with<br />

mechanisms <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong>ols <strong>to</strong> enable them <strong>to</strong> be more competent <strong>and</strong> <strong>to</strong><br />

make their voices clearly heard.<br />

Interview: Birgit Daiber, Gaza, December 20, 2011<br />

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