Repost from Bisan Owda

April 10, 2024

Today, Eid al-Fitr, we share the words of one of the remarkable women of Gaza, journalist Bisan Owda.

The following is a repost from her Instagram account, @wizard_bisan1.

“They say that tomorrow is Eid, summer is gone, winter has arrived, then New Year, then summer again, Ramadan and Eid, and I stumble every day in a whole world designed from my nightmares.

There are a thousand soldiers and a thousand shells between me and my home.

Between my family and friends are countries, all of them scattered around the world.

Whenever the army withdrew from a place, I ran to find anything I knew, from my real world, far from the world of nightmares. Before the genocide, I had walked in the Gaza Strip, inch by inch, memorizing it by heart. I told its entire stories, as I am a storyteller, but every time I arrived After the accursed army, I find that it has stripped the color, life, spirit, and memories from everything.

Those devils have turned the buildings into sand and the sand into powder and dust. They have crushed everything, trees, people, and stone. Is there anything in the world more cruel to a storyteller than destroying her stories and her memory?

Am I fed up? No, we have a verse in Arabic that says:

‘my country and if it Oppressed me is dear to me....

And my family, even if they grieve against me, are honorable.’

I am a Palestinian, and I carry within me a lot of sadness, grief, anger, and revenge, but I carry stubbornness mixed with the soil of the village to which I originate, in northern Gaza, and my stubbornness tells me: Gaza is the most beautiful place on earth, and the most deserving of life.

We will rebuild it, even if it took 100 years, that is why we were created. Inshallah every year will my land be mine, my sea be mine, and my sky be mine.

Eid Mubarak.”

LEARN. Learn more about Bisan here.

SHARE. Right now, forward this email to five people you know.

In solidarity for liberation for Palestine,

Kay Coughlin, on behalf of the Shades of Anger collective

Shades of Anger was created by a global collective of women to raise awareness and inspire action to free Palestine. We also believe in liberation for Sudan, the Congo, Haiti, and all places where systems of oppression are causing immense suffering and crushing the life out humans. We are led by women of the Global Majority/BIPOC. Shades of Anger is for everyone who wants to act for liberation and you can learn more about it here.

, Ap