Description
Book SynopsisSahbaa Al-Barbari’s story provides a unique perspective on Palestinian experiences before and after the 1948 Nakba. Born and educated in Gaza, Al-Barbari was an activist in her community. When Israel occupied the Gaza Strip in 1967, Al-Barbari and her husband Mu’in Bseiso became refugees, stripped of their residency rights and forced to live in exile for the next three decades. While in exile, moving from Lebanon to Syria, Libya, Kuwait, Egypt, and finally Tunisia, Al-Barbari held tight to her hope of one day returning to Gaza. Her life speaks volumes about the struggle experienced by millions of disenfranchised Palestinians, separated from family members and their homeland. This is the second book in the Women’s Voices from Gaza series, which honours women’s unique and underrepresented perspectives on the social, material, and political realities of Palestinian life. Foreword by Ramzy Baroud.
Trade Review"What an extraordinary project! We don't hear enough from Gaza. Through the oral histories of Palestinian women who have lived, witnessed, and built lives and futures for their families and communities—in the face of devastating force and continuing injustices—we learn Palestinian History through the intimate daily ways individuals have lived and made it." -- Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, Columbia University
"Gaza City is one of the most ancient cultural centres on the Mediterranean, and its people have long been a backbone of the Palestinian national movement. How Gazan women describe their lives under continual siege and military attack reveals their capacity for bearing hardship and undertaking initiatives in the public sphere. Ghada Ageel, a Gazan, and Barbara Bill have ably used oral history to bring readers the lived reality of women of different backgrounds, ages, and occupations." -- Rosemary Sayigh, anthropologist and oral historian
"Al-Barbari lived in Cairo, Beirut, and Kuwait, before being allowed to return to Gaza after the Oslo Peace Accords gave permission for some exiles to return... She witnessed the attacks in Beirut moving from shelter to shelter; she lived in Tunis when Israeli agents attacked Palestinians exiled there; during the 1967 war she was in Cairo, which started her original denial of return... [L]iving in peace, a real peace, is the basic demand... Light the Road of Freedom is an important contribution to recording history as witnessed and experienced by the women and families of Palestine." Jim Miller, Palestine Chronicle, August 25, 2023
Table of ContentsPreface ix Foreword xv Acknowledgments xxiii Introduction xv Light the Road of Freedom 1 / Growing up in Gaza 3 2 / The 1948 Nakba and Studies in Cairo 21 3 / Arrest and Imprisonment 43 4 / Marriage and Exile 53 5 / Tunis 73 6 / Return 87 7 / The High Price of Freedom 93 Chronology of Events in Palestine 105 Notes 125 Glossary 151 Bibliography 153
