One of the land marks of Khan Younis. By Lama Hourani, Gaza Sunflower (Blog), Wednesday, December 5, 2007
http://www.gazasunflower.blogspot.com/
I was lucky to meet her during a training course in Gaza in 1995.
She was full of energy, enthusiasm, streetwise and funny. She approached me, asking me to apply for a job in the organization she works for. I was curious to know her better. I wondered whether she was a returnee or had been born in the Gaza Strip. Surprisingly, I found out that she was born and spent her entire life in Khan Younis, a town in the center of the Gaza Strip. She didn't like my surprise at the beginning, she considered it insulting. But with my little experience at that time with the people in Gaza, I found it amazing to find an open-minded young woman, without a head scarf, knowing how to deal normally with men and women in Gaza at that time. The next day I applied for the job she mentioned and then started to work with her.
Her name is Majda, she became one of my very close friends, and in a very short time. I don’t know when and how I started describing her as a landmark of Khan Younis.
Majda is from a big family; she has two brothers and five sisters. Two brothers and two sisters are married. She and her other three sisters are not.
When I used to visit her in her family’s house I always felt as if I were with my own family. Her mother is kind and tender with everybody, but especially so with Majda's friends. She reminded me of an old aunt who lives in Syria, and whom I had not seen for a long time in those days. Her father always met me with great respect and tenderness, which was unusual for an old man from a conservative community, especially when we take into consideration that I'm a smoker and do not cover my head.
Majda's father died recently when I was in Ramallah. I was so sad because I wanted to be with my best friend in such conditions, but of course I could not. I admired her father a lot; he was relatively open minded. We used to sit with him in the garden of their house, which he took care of, and we always discussed politics with him. He was a discrete person, who took care of and helped many needy families in the city secretly. He believed in his talented daughter and never opposed any of her activities in the community, even when they were occasionally against the traditions. Such an old man is very rare to find in a conservative community. Many young women envied Majda for having such a father.
During this Intifada Majda became the only woman who did not wear her hair covered in the southern part of the Gaza Strip. In spite of the difficulties that her father might face in the community he never asked her to cover her hair.
Majda works mainly with young people. She is in her thirties but understands and communicates very well with children and teenagers. They love to work and take part in activities with her and she does, too.
It was very difficult to give my condolences to her and to her family by phone only. I wanted to be with them, to embrace her and her mum and cry on their shoulders. But the separation inside our occupied country didn't allow us to indulge in even such a small human need.
Now I talk to Majda almost every day and sometimes several times a day. When I hear her voice, when I listen to her news about the Gaza Strip I feel so touched and so connected to her, to the place and to the people. Her humour and sarcasm is unique; she could always make us laugh in the darkest of times. One of these times is the current one. Whenever I call her she tells me a joke about the situation in Gaza and the suffering that she and the others are going through. I call her, having in mind to try to cheer her up but she always ends by cheering me up instead.
I know that she feels so lonely, so trapped in the Strip, which she cannot leave because of the continuous denial of the Israeli army to give her a permit to leave from Eretz. Still, she can always create and produce new things in her work.
Majda was always used to having Palestinian friends and foreigners in her house; she knows a lot about the Gaza Strip and used to guide everyone who visited from outside around the Strip and always took us to places we never knew about. She knows almost everyone and every corner of the Strip. And she is very well known, as well. Most people are advised to meet her whenever they come to Gaza. Now and because of the closure it's very difficult to enter Gaza, even for foreigners.
When Majda knew that I was writing again she took the initiative and decided to work on my blog. She changed it to look like what you see now. I like what she did and I know that she will keep on changing it all the time. So whenever you see an improvement or change in my blog it's because of Majda.
I wish I could see her face to face and not only speak on the phone.
http://gazasunflower.blogspot.com/2007/12/one-of-land-marks-of-khan-younis.html