Asmaa Ramadan Mustafa

Palestinian women were a lifeline to their people during Gaza's genocide. On International Women's Day, their strength should be honoured, writes Asmaa Mustafa. Before the start of the genocide in Gaza, I was a teacher and mother to two girls. Now, I am a mother to more than 2000 children – alongside other courageous women in my life. As Palestinian women, living through war has meant we have become teachers, mothers, and caretakers who support countless others.

I saw the women in camps and tents taking more on their shoulders than any person should. They all had to act wiser than their years, and be more courageous, writes Asmaa Ramadan Mustafa. [GETTY] Before the start of the genocide in Gaza, I was a teacher and mother to two girls. Now, I am a mother to more than 2000 children – alongside other courageous women in my life. As Palestinian women, living through war has meant we have become teachers, mothers, and caretakers who support countless others.

Routine classes have been suspended across Gaza since the morning of Saturday, 7 October, and we have yet to see a week where classes have resumed. I used to believe that learning is a methodical affair, one that follows an educational system in a school, in classrooms, planned by teachers, as it has been in my modest sixteen years of experience in education, and as agreed upon by most educators in the world. But what is happening here in the Gaza Strip has changed my belief about that.