GAZA: Amid the poverty and deprivation of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian women struggle to find a taste of normality that is taken for granted in much of the rest of the world.
Nada Rudwan used to work in digital marketing, but as her work slowed — unemployment in Gaza stands at nearly 50 percent — she decided to put her tech skills toward one of her passions: cooking.
“It was difficult to find a job, so I thought of doing something I like and that will make me money at the same time,” said Rudwan, 27, who posts cooking tutorials to social media platforms under the name “Nada Kitchen.”
Rudwan said she earns income from YouTube proceeds and that several companies in Saudi Arabia recently purchased her videos.
“It is an attempt to beat the physical blockade of Gaza by finding a job that just needs some talent, a camera and Internet connection,” she said.
More than 2 million Palestinians — mostly descendants of people who were driven out or fled from territory that is now Israel at its founding in 1948 — are packed into the narrow Gaza Strip, which shares borders with Israel and Egypt.
Israel maintains tight control of Gaza’s land and sea borders, citing security concerns emanating from Hamas, the Islamist group which controls the coastal territory. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.
Those restrictions have devastated Gaza’s economy and left many of its women, like Rudwan’s younger sister, struggling to find work after graduating from college.
“It is hard to find a job that will allow you take care of your needs,” said Lama Rudwan, 22, a media and communications graduate who joined her sister’s cooking project after an unsuccessful job search.
Disapproving community
Some young women in Gaza speak of struggles in their personal lives, as well. They say shopping and even getting married is made more difficult by the restrictions of Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas over the past decade.
Hana Abu El-Roos, 18, said she plans to get married this summer but can’t find items she needs for her wedding in any of Gaza’s shops. “I haven’t picked my wedding dress yet,” said El-Roos, who is also busy preparing for her final high school exams. “I am confused. My sisters are helping me.”
Other Gaza women say community pressures weigh on them as they seek to bypass Gaza’s economic struggles by working jobs which some see as non-traditional.
Sahar Yaghi took up work as a wedding planner soon after dropping out of university to earn income for her family.
Yaghi’s party-planning requires her to stay up late at night. She said she sometimes hears some of her neighbors, who view her work as inappropriate, making comments about her.
“I hate some comments. But I love my job and hope to have my own business,” Yaghi, 28, said, adding she wants to become the “first female party planner” in Gaza.
For those Gaza women who do have work, the constant fear of losing their job heightens their sense of insecurity.
Sara Abu Taqea said she found temporary work in a Gaza hospital after finishing a bachelor’s degree in midwifery, but that many of her colleagues were not so lucky.
“It is a six-month contract, with no guarantee of further employment,” said Abu Taqea, 23, who works in the maternity ward at Gaza’s Al-Ahli hospital.
Abu Taqea said she finds a sense of solace in the Mediterranean Sea, whose waves crash along Gaza’s coast.
“We are lucky to have the sea. The beach is a place for relief, and for meditation, so we can forget about the wars and poverty,” Abu Taqea said.
In Gaza, women walk thin line between hope and despair
In Gaza, women walk thin line between hope and despair
- Other Gaza women say community pressures weigh on them as they seek to bypass Gaza’s economic struggles by working jobs which some see as non-traditional
- Those restrictions have devastated Gaza’s economy and left many of its women struggling to find work after graduating from college
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
