Gazan women resort to aid app to fight domestic violence-Xinhua

Gazan women resort to aid app to fight domestic violence

Source: Xinhua

Editor: huaxia

2022-07-06 01:46:12

A Palestinian woman inspects a mobile application called Our Space at the Community Media Center in Gaza City, on June 30, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

About 58 percent of women in the Palestinian territories were exposed to domestic violence in 2021, either physical or psychological.

by Sanaa Kamal

GAZA, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Hiba Mohammed, a middle-aged Palestinian woman in Gaza, has eventually managed to stand on her feet against the domestic violence she has been suffering for years.

A month ago, the 49-year-old registered in a mobile application called Our Space, which was recommended by her friend to seek help and put an end to her suffering.

"I have been suffering since I was 14 when my family forced me to marry a man about 15 years older than me," the mother of four told Xinhua.

For 20 years, the woman recalled, she was subjected to various kinds of domestic violence, either from her husband or his family who treated her as a maid rather than a wife or daughter-in-law.

A Palestinian woman walks on a field in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on Feb. 12, 2019. (Xinhua/Stringer)

In 2015, her husband died from cancer. Yet her suffering did not stop there, as her brothers forced her to leave her children to marry a new elderly man in her family home.

"Since returning to my family home, I have been deprived of seeing my sons while my brothers beat me from time to time ... and I became a new maid of my brothers' wives who did not respect me," she whined.

In an attempt to escape from her tragic life, Hiba tried to commit suicide more than once by taking doses of medicinal pills, but all failed and only led to more abuses.

A Palestinian woman attends a music therapy session at the Kayan Cultural Center in Gaza City, on Feb. 23, 2022. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

A similar story was told by Halima Ahmed from the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, where she was subjected to beatings by her brothers and husband for more than 10 years.

"Unfortunately, the societal culture encourages women to accept insults and obey their husbands, even if his decisions were wrong," the 40-year-old mother of seven told Xinhua.

"After many years of suffering, my husband abandoned me and my sons. We were left without a breadwinner and faced poverty," she said.

With the help of the Our Space app, both Hiba and Halima now receive psychological support provided by a feminist institution, which assists them in confronting domestic violence.

"This application helps battered women access their own institutions with less time, effort, cost, and more confidentiality," Salma Swirki, a psychologist at the Women's Affairs Center in Gaza, a partner of the Our Space app, told Xinhua.

"As soon as a woman contacts us, we communicate with her through the free number available on the application, or via e-mails in order to provide our guidance to her ... After that, we manage a meeting with the woman and prepare a counselling program for her in a face-to-face manner," she said.

People visit an exhibition called "March Flower" about the Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip, in Gaza City, on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua)

In partnership with 14 women's nongovernmental organizations, the app provides psychological, economic, social, and legal support, as well as shelter for women who suffer from domestic violence.

About 58.2 percent of women in the Palestinian territories were exposed to domestic violence in 2021, either physical or psychological, according to a report issued by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in March. 

Comments

Comments (0)
Send

    Follow us on