Photo: Loay Ayyoub | The Guardian
Rouzan al-Najjar, a 21-year-old paramedic from the Gaza Strip shot by an Israeli sniper, knew her work saving lives during the 2018 protests with Israel challenged assumptions about women in the highly conservative Palestinian territory. Shortly after her funeral, her mother, Sabreen, 49, enrolled on a training course with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society. "The pain I felt ignited my desire to prove how strong Palestinian mothers are and how they can do great things even when they are broken." Social worker Shireen Abu Aita, 39, is bringing up four children alone after her husband was killed in 2014 when an Israeli missile hit next door. Her boys, all under 18, want to study medicine and engineering at university. Hala Shehada, 30, who also lost her husband in a 2014 bombing, has carved out a life for herself and their daughter, Tuleen, now eight. She put herself through university and started her own wedding photography studio in 2017. "It is hard to be a widow in Gaza, and to succeed in Gaza, but Tuleen is my inspiration," Shehada said. "She wants to be a pilot when she grows up."
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