Global Roundup: Day of Solidarity with Palestinian People, Global Protests to End Violence vs Women, Sudan War's Impact on Women, Papuan Women's Forest Threatened, Guerrilla Girls Protesting Art World

Leen Nahal. Photo: UN Women/Suleiman Hajji

In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly called for the annual observance of November 29 as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. On that day, in 1947, the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine. UN Women has profiled Palestinian teenage girls and older women to highlight the ways that war and displacement have impacted generations of Palestinian women.

Leen Nahal, 14, has endured five wars in Gaza and been repeatedly displaced.

This war has irreversibly changed my life. We have been displaced repeatedly, losing my education, my friends. The fear we live with is beyond words. Once, we could buy food, fruits, and clothes; now, eight of us are crammed into a makeshift tent. I bear responsibilities I never imagined. -Leen Nahal

Nahal was once a top student. Since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, her life has been thrown into upheaval.

Now, I sit in a tent with all my books, school uniforms, and bag gone. I feel as if I am losing my future, my education, and my childhood. My dream is to end this war and become a history teacher, to share the story of Palestine’s history and our unending suffering. - Leen Nahal

Thuraya Al Gourani, 85, has endured seven wars, and recounted how each time her family was displaced, beginning with the Nakba in 1948, they did not know if their home would still be standing when they returned.

Thuraya Al Gourani. Photo: UN Women/Suleiman Hajji

My life has been shaped by displacement. I still remember the day in 1948 as my father hurriedly gathered us to flee our home in Al Faluja, a small village located between Hebron and Gaza, as Israeli militias approached…We escaped to Khan Younis, leaving everything behind. Each stripped away more of our dignity. This current war is the cruelest and most relentless, lasting longer than any before. -Thuraya Al Gourani

Amani Al Derbi, 35, a psychotherapist in the Gaza Ministry of Health, worked to provide comfort to those traumatized by years of conflict. Before the war, she dreamed of securing a scholarship for a Ph.D. programme—but in May 2024, an Israeli airstrike killed Amani and her four children.

Amani Al Derbi is seen with her children. Photo courtesy of Amani Al Derbi.

Palestinian women and girls in the West Bank also face severe challenges and burdens.

We are not asking for much—just the right to live in peace, to breathe without fear. Palestinian women have borne the brunt of this suffering, yet we are still here. We are still standing. Our strength is all we have left. -Kafa Abu Harb, a 49-year-old widow and mother of three