Seventy Years of Palestinian Women's Resistance

Sobhia Krayem

I would like to introduce you to one of the faces of the Palestinian women’s struggle, the beautiful ambassador of Palestinian heritage, Sobhia Krayem. Her family are originally from Saffuriyya in the District of Nazareth, but she was born in Lebanon 70 years ago, a few years after her family were forcibly expelled from Palestine by the Zionist occupation forces during the Nakbah. She is a strong woman who has fought and suffered due to the daily rules of the patriarchal society, the forced Palestinian displacement, the Zionist invasion of Lebanon in 1982, racism and the Lebanese civil war.

Palestinian Embroidery

However, this did not prevent her from retraining and carrying out various activities. After the Israelis invaded Lebanon, there was a time where she with her husband hosted a big number of people from all different nationalities and religions and provided them a shelter and flour to cook, one of the people who came for shelter, was Naji Al-Ali the Palestinian cartoonist, who was at latter date assassinated for his political criticism of the Arab regimes and Israel in London. The cruelty of the Israelis did not stop at the unjust invasion of Lebanon and was not limited to violent air raids and a lot of shelling on the ground, they also began capturing unarmed Palestinian civilians. There are those who have been killed and their bodies molested, and there are some who were count themselves fortunate enough to be confined to captivity and torture. This was the fate of her husband, who left her with seven children, whom she had to take care of for nearly four months by herself. It was difficult for her to communicate with any of her relative’s because she was far away and lived in the city of Sidon in a semi-remote area. She had to play the role of mother and father. She started selling vegetables that she had brought with what was left of her money, wandering the streets with her older son one day and her younger son the next day, until she managed to get hold of some support payments from some of her relatives and other Palestinian organisations.

Another of her remarkable achievements is that she founded the Al-Adham workshop for Palestinian Embroidery Heritage to support and assist Palestinian women who do not receive monthly salaries due to the harsh conditions in the camps, including the lack of income for retired Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. 

 

She has struggled and struggled, and I do not feel that there is enough appreciation of her struggle and achievements from any official Palestinians, nor Lebanese nor are there many women able to encourage her and support her projects, which is the practice of Palestinian arts and crafts, which is one of the foundations of the Palestinian heritage, practiced so as people do not forget the identity of the Palestinian people. 

Traditional Palestinian Dress

Sobhia organizes activities from time to time for women in one of the Palestinian diaspora camps in southern Lebanon, by training them in embroidery techniques and design. When her clients ask her for some Palestinian embroidery work for a fee, she distributes the work to the women and takes each of them their share, even though the fees are usually small, but she believes in this way of doing the work, even if the wage is low. She believes she serves, first and foremost, the Palestinian cause, and that she can put some money into the pockets of the women for them to use themselves, to shop for things they need away from the control of the men. This work is also a great way for her to meet the women, for them to talk and to check on each other.

Mrs. Sobhia is also involved in Palestinian activities through sit-ins, giving speeches, and visiting the borders between occupied Palestine and Lebanon even working with organisations such as the Red Cross. Her life has not been easy at all, she got married very young in the sixties and has had ten children and twenty grandchildren, and they that themselves have five children: which all of them so proud of her; and not to mention that she cooks the best Palestinian food that anyone who knows the taste of Middle Eastern food could wish for! 

Working with the Red Cross

She believes that the Palestinian women are good at everything despite the difficulties they face, and that Palestinian society must first give women the opportunities they deserve, she will never give up her hope of return to Palestine and shall keep fighting and working until the end and making sure she plants the right of self-determination and right of return for generations to come.

You can find about Sobhia Krayem HERE

Long Live Palestine!