Second class citizen by Haneen Attallah, Gaza, Palestine

I am Haneen from Gaza, I am only 27 years old and I have a masters degree in empowerment. Currently, I am a work communication officer in one of the most important international organizations in my country. Thankfully,  I have a great family who supports me and gives me my whole rights as women.I want to talk about gender equity. Simply because I can’t see any gender equity here, in Gaza.  When I start my work, I never would have thought that I would see so much injustice and unfairness toward the girls and women of my community. Further, I would have never thought  I would see how women are treated as second class citizens. The first time I saw this type of inequality I was shocked. One of my friends was fired from her job because she was pregnant.  I couldn’t possibly imagine this type of racism, it’s like “sorry we can’t hire you because you have red hair or because you are fat!”

During all my life I thought that no one could ever treat me like this, but when I was 27 years old I started to deal with this type of racism. People began questioning me why I was not married, in fact many people did not think my life could be worth anything because I was not married. This is just another type of the same discrimination. As a woman in Gaza you are a second class citizen, no matter if you have a masters degree, or if  you are a senior citizen or highly educated, the most important thing to many is asking the two questions: how old are you? Are you married?