#OutlookMagazine Anniversary Issue | Women of Gaza are holding on, but for how long-
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00:00 I am Pragya and I bring to you excerpts from the ear-ender issue titled "We Bear Witness".
00:06 The issue is dedicated to the people of Gaza and what they went through.
00:11 Women of Gaza are holding on, but for how long?
00:15 Farah Barkavi, as told to Rakibos of Outlook.
00:19 What is happening in Gaza now is a backward step in every way for the feminist movement,
00:25 says Farah Barkavi, a Palestinian feminist, performer and poet, pursuing an MFA degree
00:32 in non-fiction creative writing in Brooklyn.
00:35 I was a teenager in Gaza 20 years ago and I remember an incident when I was having a
00:41 heavy period day.
00:42 I was at a bus stand at the Rafah crossing, which had white plastic seats.
00:47 Despite wearing a sanitary napkin, I overflowed and stained the seat.
00:52 An older woman called out to me and pointed at the blood.
00:56 I am a feminist and raised well by my feminist mother and know there is no shame in menstruating.
01:03 And yet I remember how stigmatizing that moment was for me.
01:08 Today, sitting in Brooklyn, United States, watching my city get reduced to rubble, I
01:14 keep thinking about that day at the bus stop and I wonder what the menstruating women must
01:20 be going through at the moment in Gaza, which has been under Israel's siege for nearly
01:25 three months.
01:26 I can feel the shame and humiliation they must be feeling.
01:30 Many of these young girls and women just carried a backpack when they left their homes.
01:35 How much could they even carry in that backpack?
01:37 It's not surprising to hear that in Gaza, the demand for pills to block menstruation
01:43 and contraception has gone up since this invasion.
01:47 Women do not want to menstruate as there is no water or pads.
01:52 As a poet writing about Gaza, the border, my mother and the ulfa, this assault has been
01:58 really overwhelming for me because my mother, Zainab Al-Gonaymi, is now in Gaza City.
02:04 A feminist organizer and human rights defender herself, she's been there since the start,
02:10 surviving Israeli artillery, bombs and white phosphorus.
02:15 She co-founded a shelter for women survivors of domestic violence and abuse.
02:20 Despite the immense bombing and fighting, the shelter is still up and running and is
02:25 currently hosting refugees, women and children.
02:29 My mother had initially remained in her apartment in Gaza City.
02:33 Amid all the conflict, she has to survive herself and also manage the shelter.
02:38 I don't know when or if I will be able to see her again.