March 8th marks International Women’s Day– a day to celebrate our collective strength, resilience, and the abundance of beauty to be found in each one of us no matter where we might be. We at UPA want to focus on a group that embodies these values despite the most impossible deprivation and violence: the Palestinian woman.  

Well before October 7th, the international community witnessed occupation, displacement, indiscriminate violence, and an attempted erasure of an entire people in Palestine. However, the ongoing genocide on Palestine since October 7th has been described by some as a “war against women,” with 70% of civilians killed in Gaza being women and children, whose care falls most to women. Israel’s attack on women demonstrates their recognition of the life-giving power of Palestinian women, which extend beyond pregnancy. These women are activists, mentors, leaders, and healers. The women of Palestine remain the undercurrent of stability and resilience. Their power is not just in the roles they fulfill for others, but in their ability to resist, survive, and build in the face of relentless hardship.  

Take journalist Bisan Owda, who shows the world her vulnerable and honest accounts of her life and experiences during the war despite censorship, beginning each post with “This is Bisan, it is day ___ of the genocide, and I am still alive.”  Where media is tightly controlled, and stories about Palestinian people are overlooked, Owda’s work is an act of resistance, and she has become a beacon to women around the world. Palestinian women who are recipients of the UPA’s Mahmoud Darwish Scholarship resist by continuing their education and looking towards a future as an educated, emancipated Palestinian. Grandmothers embody generations of resistance. They are women, who with age and strength, pass down stories of their land and vibrant culture. This includes elders at Jerash Refugee Camp, in Jordan who remain rooted in their solidarity and volunteer their time to learn how to take care of themselves and those still in Palestine. They demonstrate resistance by maintaining their dignity, by demonstrating self-reliance, by taking responsibility for cultural preservation, and by expressing their own steadfast solidarity to their people.  

The consequences of colonization, occupation, and genocide have disproportionately affected Palestinian women. However, it is the indifference and disempowerment from fellow women internationally, which allows the onslaught of violence in Palestine to continue. When women prioritize the experiences of those who are most similar to us, it reinforces exclusion that undermines broader movements for justice. “Whatever the core problems are for the people of that country must also be the core problems addressed by women, for we do not exist in a vacuum,” Writes Audre Lorde. In other words, inequality towards any woman–brown, white, young, old– is a mark of failure towards the collective liberation of all.  Every act of solidarity counts! Happy Women’s Day!