Men and women celebrate International Women’s Day in Gaza

UNRWA teamed up with male and female artists to paint murals across the Gaza Strip to celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March 2015. The event featured the theme for International Women’s Day 2015 - ‘Empower Women, Empower Humanity: Picture it!’ The powerful, eye-catching images illustrate women in Gaza working as musicians, judges, painters, doctors, engineers, football players and taxi drivers. The message shared by the vibrant paintings is clear: Women can.

The graffiti-style paintings aim to bring women’s issues to the forefront through art and challenge people’s perception of reality. Women in these roles already exist in Gaza – although in small numbers due to the difficult economic situation, which hinders employment opportunities, and the traditional values prevailing in society.

The UNRWA International Women’s Day celebration also included Open Day events in each of Gaza’s five governorates, organized in cooperation with 35 UNRWA Gender Initiative partner organizations and attracting over 2,000 participants. The events brought together women from marginalized areas affected by last summer’s conflict, and included awareness-raising theatre sketches, folkloric songs, the famous Palestinian Dabka dance and story-telling sessions. The events were generously supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, Germany (BMZ).