A White Lie - Albatta, Madeeha Hafez

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Résumé :
Palestinian refugees in Gaza have lived in camps for five generations, experiencing hardship and uncertainty. In the absence of voice or official histories, oral narratives handed down from generation to generation bear witness to life in Gaza since Nakba--the catastrophe of dispossession. These histories maintain traditions, keep names of destroyed villages alive, and record stories of fighting for dignity and freedom. The Women's Voices from Gaza series honours women's unique and underrepresented perspectives on the social, material, and political realities of Palestinian life. In A White Lie, the first volume in this series, Madeeha Hafez Albatta chronicles her life. Among her remarkable achievements was establishing some of the first schools for refugee children in Gaza. Her story will benefit Middle East scholars, social justice and human rights advocates, and all who want to know more about the modern history of Palestine.--...

Biographie:
Madeeha Hafez Albatta (1924-2011), born in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, became a teacher while in her teens and a principal in her mid-twenties, the youngest in Gazan history. She was among the pioneers to rally the Palestinian community to guarantee the right to education for thousands of refugee children arriving in Gaza after the destruction of their homeland in 1948. The events of her life took her and her family across mandatory Palestine to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Canada. Barbara Bill lived and worked in Gaza for six years and currently resides in New South Wales, Australia. Ghada Ageel is a visiting professor of political science at the University of Alberta, a columnist for the Middle East Eye, and the editor of Apartheid in Palestine (UAlberta Press)....

Sommaire:
This first narrative in the Women's Voices from Gaza Series turns the clock back more than ninety years and invites readers on a journey of reimagining a once-upon-a-time in Palestine. Madeeha Hafez Albatta's story recounts a life of happiness, uncertainty, loss, and also, ultimately, of pride, resistance, and hope. Weaving together many narrative threads, A White Lie unearths a version of history long excluded from mainstream discourse, illuminating a vibrant culture, rich community relations, old traditions, and grand resistance. Madeeha was born and raised in Khan Younis, a town in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, and her life took her, along with her family, across mandatory Palestine to Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Tunis, the United States, Germany, Greece, Austria, and Canada. In 1938, Madeeha had to resort to tricking her family into allowing her to attend college. That white lie changed her life forever. She became a teacher while still in her teens and then the principal of a school while in her early twenties. As a teacher and headmistress, a campaigner for rights, an activist and community organizer, a mother, and a champion of dignity, Madeeha witnessed some of the most turbulent periods of Palestine's recent history. Her narrative preserves minute details of distinctly Palestinian individual and collective life through different eras and regimes. It depicts a vibrant culture, old traditions, customs, and other critical features of Palestinian society that readers rarely encounter.
The Women's Voices from Gaza Series honours women's unique and underrepresented perspectives on the social, material, and political realities of Palestinian life.
Foreword by Salman Abu Sitta....