ALHAWIAT
SAMIRA
Jordan
Samira was a resistant and member of the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) during the Lebanese war. She’s now at the head of an association for women in Shatila, teaching them sewing to help them gain financial independence.
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I was born in Jordan from a Palestinian family, but moved in 1949, at 17, in Homs (Syria), where I lived in a peaceful environment and a loving family.
But I was soon confronted to militantisme with one of my teacher. She was quite nationalist, and really dedicated herself to opening us to the world. The Suez Crisis in 1956 was a real eye-opener, notably about the role of foreign powers such as France or England in the politics in the Middle-East. This is when I started militating myself. There was in the Arab world a large wave of resistance at that time, that culminated during the 1967 movement of exodus of the Six Days War.
It also marked an important moment for women, as the traditional roles were turned upside down, while women went to the front lines or attended protests.
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So I got involved in politics, and militated among women so they would be aware of their importance in society. I worked in fields such as education, communication, and coordination in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine).
Palestinian camp of Shatila, Lebanon / © Chloe Sharrock
And, in 1970, I moved to Lebanon with my husband, where we settled in Ein El Hilweh’s camp near the city of Saïda.
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I was shocked by the living conditions there for the Palestinians. There was such a high level of restriction and surveillance, and in parallel such a lack of security ! After a few years we settled further North, in Shatila Camp.
In 1979, a few years after the beginning of the Lebanese war, I entered the GUPW (General Union of Palestinian Women) as a response to the serious absence of leadership among the women.
We created different committees with specific tasks: taking care of war orphans, coordinating the displacements, reconstructing the camps, helping the wounded and the soldiers on the front line, or simply facilitating the communication through the country.
It was also important that women became fully part of the resistance, so they would gain in strength to ask for more rights for themselves once the war would be over.
Nowadays, I am still very active. I created an association in Shatila camp, in Beirut, open to Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian women, where we teach them sewing. Our main goal is to give them the necessary tools to gain in autonomy. There are severe economic restrictions for refugees here, as the law forbid Syrian and Palestinian to have access to 72 jobs, therefore women are often the only one in their family to have the possibility to have an income.
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Furthermore, financial dependence forbid women to reach assertiveness.
It’s such a heavy burden being a woman refugee in Lebanon. There’s a lack of access to health care, no job opportunities, and these harsh living conditions often lead to violence at home and psychological distress.
This is why it’s so important that women learn, as young as possible, to ask for their rights.
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