Veiled Women of Gaza Forced to Lead Unveiled Lives The lives of women are passing through extremely difficult circumstances.
There seems to be no end in sight to the ongoing war between Hamas and Israel for the past year. Due to the intensity and devastation of the war, all of Palestine, especially Gaza, has turned into rubble. Thousands of homes, including colleges, mosques, and hospitals, have been destroyed, and thousands of people have lost their lives. After losing their shelters, people are forced to live in tents and under open skies.
According to a report, 90% of the population, nearly 2.3 million people, have been forced to leave their homes. Over 45,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been martyred.
Due to severe food shortages, starvation has reached its peak. For those living in tents, apart from the harsh cold, they also face a lack of food and clothing. Among these people forced to live in small tents, women, in particular, are struggling with privacy issues.
In such dire circumstances, women are compelled to live with non-mahram men in small tents. This has made it extremely challenging for them to observe their veil. The situation is so dire that women, children, and men are all living together in small tents.
In these small tents, women cannot find adequate spaces even for changing clothes or sleeping. It seems as though their privacy has been completely taken away.
A report from the United Nations states that over 690,000 women lack access to sanitary pads during their menstruation periods due to the ongoing war. This has made these days extremely difficult for them.
According to Ahl Siyam, the director of the Center for Women’s Affairs in Gaza, such dire conditions can prove highly dangerous for women.
The plight of Palestinian citizens taking refuge in tents has reached such extremes that even basic facilities like toilets are unavailable.
A veiled woman living in Gaza’s tent camps, Ala Hamami, said, “Our entire lives are now spent in prayer clothes. We can no longer remove this garment. From sleeping at night to every moment of the day, we wear this because men are always around us. Wearing this garment has become a compulsion to keep ourselves covered.”
She further added, “Even at night when we sleep, we wear this because we never know when or from which direction an Israeli attack might occur. Wearing this makes it easier to flee to a safe place.”
The unveiled lives women are living in Gaza’s tents today are purely out of compulsion. When conditions here were better, women strictly observed their veils and never appeared unveiled before strangers or non-mahram men.
It is worth noting that the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday, December 30, 2024, called for an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza. The WHO issued this appeal following Israel’s continuous attacks on hospitals.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds. The healthcare system is once again under the shadow of fear and terror. We repeat once again that attacks on hospitals in Gaza must stop.” He also called for a ceasefire.
