In a war that devastates everything, even what should be untouchable is violated. In Gaza, menstruation has become a taboo of survival: women can no longer afford the luxury of suffering in silence, because they do not even have what it takes to manage the menstrual cycle.
The journalist denounces him strongly Rula Jebrealreporting the desperate words and requests of students and friends trapped in the strip.
We also talked about it here: without water, absorbent or dignity: for the women of Gaza having menstruation is a nightmare inside the nightmare
They have no absorbent. They have no water. They have no answers. And in some cases, they ask if there is a definitive way: sterilization.
This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is systemic violence on the female body.
The body as a battlefield
Every month, menstruation return, punctual. But in Gaza, female nature has become an impossible weight to bring. Women do not have access to basic hygiene products.
To wash? The only option is the sea. Fresh water is not there. Israel limits access to vital resources, and female hygiene becomes yet another collateral victim.
While the world discusses geopolitics, in Gaza the girls must choose whether to bleed in silence or risk infections, humiliation, pain. It is a condition that breaks the body and the spirit.
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According to WHO, over 40% of pregnant women or breastfeeding in the strip is in a state of acute malnutrition. But to hunger is added another famine, less visible but equally destructive: that of hygiene and dignity.
The menstrual cycle, natural and inevitable, thus turns into a monthly prison. The requests that come to Rula Jebreal are terrible: “How can I sterilize myself?”, Some women ask. Not by choice, but out of necessity. Out of despair.
Wash in the sea, survive in the mud
Gaza’s sand is not a beach, but refuge. The sea is not a holiday, but soap. Women were washed there, in public, without protection, without safety. A daily scene that should shake consciences, but that often passes in silence.
In the meantime, the distribution of essential goods is hindered, aids are slowed down, and products for female health – absorbent, disinfectants, clean linen – simply do not arrive.
Rula Jebreal speaks openly about genocide. And inside this very hard word there is also the slow destruction of the possibility of being a woman, mother, young, alive. The female body is not just neglected: it is punished.
Even looking for food has become an act of courage. More than 1,000 people have been killed in an attempt to reach food aid, according to what reported. The food was transformed into “bait to kill“Said Jebreal. And while families risk their lives to eat, women risk infection to live their cycle.
This is a war that is also fought in the silence of a bathroom that is not there, in the blood that cannot be washed, in the shame that should not exist.
The management of menstruation is not a luxury. It is a human right. And denying it is a cruel, systematic and invisible form of violence. A response is needed. Right away.
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