Inès at Baddawi camp
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Najdeh also organizes educational campaigns on the topics of health and violence and develops vocational training centres for young women who were unsuccessful in their academic studies. Inès and Tania are just about thirty and they are both single. Tania studied at the university thanks to aids from the UNRWA and Inès thanks to "Unknown "patrons" sensitive to the situation of Palestinian women in camps". They say, almost simultaneously, explaining that they grew up in an extremely precarious environment: "We strive to improve the daily lives of today and tomorrow’s children so that they don’t experience what we went through". They try to introduce a little levity and joy to the lives of those children whose environment is surrounded by fears. Tania and Inès promote desegregation in schools, in kindergartners and entertainment centres where they work, in order to encourage dialogue and respect between men and women. Ines adds "I think we, as young women, have a role that transcends the walls of our homes; we should participate in the education of the next generation ". How can one learn to grow up when one plays in the street surrounded by garbage?
According to them, education is the best -if not the only- weapon that contemporary women have.
Upstairs, the children are drawing heart-shaped greeting cards for mothers' day.
Weren’t they criticized for their choices? These two young women in jeans, sneakers and shimmering veils recognize having been privileged: "We have been lucky to have always been supported by our families who have never tried to retain us at home neither exerted pressure on us to get married." Inès and Tania are contemporary young women, without the recklessness part maybe. They do not want to miss out on the modernity train and quench their thirst for knowledge in internet cafes. Thanks to the media, they see the planet a little larger and it becomes possible to cross the borders of the camps. They want to keep on deciding their own future; they also want to choose their respective husband who would neither be a cousin nor a neighbour. "It is true that the family exerts some pressure on us to eventually get married to Palestinians" says Tania before adding "But I understand and share the desire to preserve our cultural heritage through marriage ". In the meantime, they anxiously ask their married friends about sexuality because the topic is still taboo; so much so, that it cannot be discussed with their mothers. They explain revealing a slight anxiety: "We find a few answers to our questions on the internet and in books; we also talk about it a lot with each other ". On the other hand, they admit lacking information related to contraception, they however do not want to have more than three children: "We want to keep our status of women and do not want to become only mothers".
For these young women who have decided to wear the veil, it simultaneously represents "A religious symbol, an identity, and a sign of femininity; I choose it according to the colour of the clothes I am wearing,” says Ines.
Away from all that, they have a dream: "Go to Palestine" they both declare vehemently, defending their right to return to the land they have never known.
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