RAFIF ESLEEM

Gaza- Amid the ongoing Israel’s attacks and siege on the Gaza Strip, women, especially breadwinners of their families, face serious financial difficulties. Feminist activist Amira Hassouna launched an initiative to help Palestinian women. She built three Taboon ovens, portable clay ovens, to help women so that they can earn a daily income, even if it is a small amount.

She learned how to build ovens from her grandmother

Amira Hassouna and the other women baking bread also help families taking shelter in the camp by distributing free bread. Taboon oven, also known as Tabun oven, is a traditional clay oven used in Afghanistan for centuries.

“With the advance of technology, as women, we started using modern ovens. However, the attacks on the Gaza Strip have taken us back to before the Nakba,” said Amira Hassouna. “We learned how to build Taboon ovens, to use them to make our lives easier to cook and bake bread and heat water from our grandmothers. For us, these ovens are tools to not only cook but also to struggle to survive.”

Amira Hassouna wants to build more ovens to help other displaced people taking shelter in other camps since the number of displaced people increases every day in Gaza. “If the severe shortage of flour and firewood continues, we will have to ask a symbolic fee from the displaced people in the camp to buy raw materials.”

Amira Hassouna believes that the initiative launched by her strengthens social bonds by bringing dozens of women together around the ovens. “Such initiatives strengthen social bonds despite all the challenges. Some women knead dough while the others bake bread in cooperation and solidarity.”

Sabreen Ashour, a mother of six, started working at the bakery because she had no alternative source of income to support her family after the death of her husband. “The initiative has helped dozens of families, especially women, in the camp. Baking bread is difficult and tiring as temperatures soar. You are affected by smoke and suffer from burns and some skin diseases. I do my best to be careful. I am happy to preserve the legacy of our grandmothers.”

Call on women to support

Sanaa Abu Issa, mother of three, believes it is difficult for a woman to survive alone without a breadwinner. “Women all around the world have a life with dignity. I just want to have a normal life. We suffer from the shortage of flour and firewood due to the Israeli blockade of aid delivery to the Gaza Strip. I call on all women to take action in order to support their Palestinian sisters, end the injustice against them and save them from imminent famine.”