IN STEREO

I work at an embroidery store. Embroidery, the Palestinian heritage. My son had several operations on his eyes, so I had to work. Honestly, my circumstances: home, children – you can’t leave them. It’s not easy, no. I started to work at home, as an employee. I mean I was working for people. I embroidered and people paid me in return. Then we had the Christmas market on Star Street, and I seized the opportunity. I took a store from the neighbours. Then other women started working with me, too. It’s true that our society is a masculine society. But if someone wants to compare between the past and today, today the woman drives a car; today the woman flies a plane! Today the woman is completely different. But unfortunately, some people [still] think that the woman is for the house and those things. Maybe many women don’t work outside of their houses, but they’re active in society.

Men always refuse that the woman works. Why? Because they feel that if the woman worked, she’d have authority in the house. And of course, the man likes to be the big boss, right? Even with all of that, with my respect to all the women of the Arab world and of [all] the world, it’s known everywhere that Palestinian women are the most militant women. [The] martyr’s mother, prisoners’ mother, who sacrifices herself for her homeland and for her children. But I’m telling you that Palestinian women, they’ve always worked. I mean, all of this is resistance. A lot of women sacrifice for their sons, for their husbands. A lot of women have a man with a disability, have children, and they look after them and guard them and work. But we lack some justice between man and woman. Even in the courts, justice always takes men’s sides. – Nuha