PUBLIC CONVERSATION | PALESTINE: REPAIR & RETURN - Stories of Women & Health

This event will present Palestinians’ experiences of Women and Health as the genocide continues. Voices of Palestinian women, health practitioners, therapists will be amplified, the significance and crucial importance of women’s health will be explored and the actions that communities in Palestine are taking to safeguard and regenerate this major aspect of life will be illustrated. We are encouraging participation from interested individuals and communities in the UK and elsewhere to link up and support this struggle.

This is a part of developing PALESTINE: REPAIR & RETURN - aiming to engage diverse fields of social activity and practices, placing theatreand drama in a creative and integrating role amongst other ‘skill and knowledge’ communities. 

‘After more than eleven months of war more than 162,000 women in Gaza suffer from or are at risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Women, in particular older women, in Gaza have historically been at a higher risk of NCDs.10 There are over 30,841 women at risk of diabetes, 107,443 women at risk of hypertension, 18,583 women at risk of cardiovascular diseases, and 5,201 women with cancer.11 Disruption in basic care for these diseases can result in long-term complications or death’. from Gender Alert: Gaza, a War on Women’s Health UN Women 2024

‘Each Palestinian mother is a story of holding a quiet scream against the theft of normalcy, dignity, and value as a human being. Their existing endurance becomes a rebellion against a life where mothering is an act of resistance and resilience.’ from Gaza’s Broken Lullaby: Genocidal Unchilding and the Impossibility of Mothering by Lama Z. Khouri in Studies in Gender and Sexuality 2024 Vol. 25 No. 3

Event will be available live online via Zoom link.

Testimonies from women living in Palestine

Ruth Lass, actor and activist

Jonathan Chadwick, Director of Az Theatre

Hanan Kaoud, Local Council Member for the Ramallah Municipality and an expert on gender, she is Director of Development Communication and outreach for MIFTAH, The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy.

Vanessa Farr, University of Cape Town, an independent consultant specialising in gender, peace and security, particularly in the Islamic world. She has been a Lead Researcher for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom

Lama Khouri is a doctor in psychoanalytic studies and a Clinical Social Work/Therapist working in New York

Salma Madhoun holds a Masters in Human Rights and Political Science  

Jamal Al Rozzi, Co-Director of Theatre for Everybody (Gaza), Executive Director of National Rehabilitation Society in Gaza

Hossam Madhoun, Co-Director of Theatre for Everybody (Gaza), Child Protection Programme Manager