Nono icons, no victims. Not heroines to be celebrated, nor martyrs to be pitied. «Palestinian women they ask to be seen and talked about for what they do every day: they hold everyday life together, even when everything around them collapses.” It is from this awareness that Martina Albini, Coordinator of the WeWorld Study Center, starts in her story Her Future at Riskthe new survey dedicated togender impact of humanitarian crises. After Afghanistan and Ukraine, the focus today shifts to Palestine: Gaza, the West Bank and thesuffocating and systematic intertwining between military occupation and pre-existing patriarchal structures.
There is a methodological aspect which, in this case, becomes political substance. The report gives Palestinian women back control of the narrative: is in fact based on 57 in-depth interviews with women and women’s and feminist organizations across Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora, conducted by a research team made up of over 60% of Palestinian professionals. The investigation will be previewed this evening, Monday 11 May at 8.30pm, at the Casa delle Donne, with testimonies from the field and an intervention by Daria Bignardiauthor of Our solitudea book in which he also recounts the meetings that took place during his last trip to the West Bank.
The impact of war on Palestinian women: the WeWorld report on Gaza and the West Bank
What emerges from the report is the story of a crisis that affects women’s bodies, their homes, mental health, everyday life. Since October 2023, the escalation of hostilities in Gaza and the tightening of occupation policies in the West Bank have aggravated already existing inequalities, transforming structural discrimination into a condition of constant risk. Economic precariousness and instability have exacerbated social tensions and increased gender violence inside homes, in overcrowded shelters, even in places intended for the distribution of aid.
What is missing is not only security and freedom, but also what makes a dignified life possible: privacy, adequate sanitation, access to water, menstrual hygiene products. Not marginal details, but fundamental rights denied.
Don’t call them resilient: “Patience is only what we have left”
For generations, Palestinian women have learned to live with uncertainty. And what is often called “resilience” from the outside looks much more like an exhausting survival practice. «People say we are patient. But patience is what remains when all other doors are closed», says one of the women interviewed.
Today that precariousness has turned into collapse. «What happened to the women does not appear in the media or reports» says another testimony. «Unless someone listens very carefully, our pain remains invisible».
The life of Palestinian women, between the queues for bread, the fear of children, the dead to mourn
The days pass in a ferocious routine: managing families without water, cooking on improvised fires, queuing for hours for bread or aid, cleaning communal latrines, calming terrified children, looking for medicine, mourning their dead without space or time to actually do it. Survival becomes an infinite sequence of urgencies. «I have become a machine» says a woman. «Before the war I used creams and perfumes. Now I wear kohl just to remind myself that I’m still a human being».
In Gaza, the destruction of neighborhoods has also erased domestic intimacy. The houses were not just buildings, but spaces for meditation, prayer and rest. Today life takes place inside tents, schools transformed into shelters, improvised structures made of fabric and sheet metal. «My place… is not a home, not even a refuge. It is a torn piece of fabric that covers bodies exhausted by cold, hunger and fear» says a woman.
In the West Bank, however, violence takes a slower, almost suspended form. «Nothing explodes here» says a young woman, «but nothing is done forward either». Political fragmentation and insecurity permeate every aspect of life: education, work, public space, community relations. And once again it is women who bear the emotional weight of stability: protecting children, mediating tensions, holding families and communities together when it is increasingly difficult to do so.
The female body and personal hygiene, with toothpaste and sand
The report pays particular attention to the female body as a space of control and vulnerability: compromised sexual and reproductive health, mental health under pressure, lack of privacy, precarious access to toilets and water.
«For personal hygiene, I sometimes had to resort to wet wipes, handkerchiefs or pieces of cloth… all less than ideal solutions, which left us uncomfortable. For soap, I used toothpaste for a long time and, at one point, even sand. Later I discovered the use of ash and tried that too. Fortunately, in the end I managed to stock up on soap, but the first time I found myself without detergents it was really difficult.”
Women’s support networks, in shelters and in the diaspora
Yet, alongside vulnerability, the report also talks about daily resistance and the new forms of “sisterhood”: improvised, spontaneous, free. Even in overcrowded shelters and hostile spaces, women rebuild support networks: they share food, take care of each other’s children, organize safe spaces, support each other emotionally. A solidarity that arises from necessity but becomes essential for collective survival.
Even in the diaspora, Palestinian women describe the struggle to rebuild a sense of belonging, often without identity recognition and with fragmented social networks. Once again, it is the relationships between women that are transformed into a space of continuity, care and reconstruction.
Local leaders excluded from strategies and funds
A crucial role is that of humanitarian workers, engaged on the front line while experiencing first-hand the same crisis as the communities they support. Yet the report denounces an obvious paradox: although it is often women who actually organize daily survival, local leaders remain excluded from the places where strategies and financing are decided.
Mediators, educators, social workers, volunteers: they are the ones who guarantee access to services, protection, listening and trust in the communities. Even if they continue to receive only a small part of international funds, mainly intended for large agencies or structures with male leadership.
