Manchester Palestine Solidarity Campaign Discussion Meeting:

Supporting the right to Education for Women in the Gaza Strip

Speaker: Sara Gowen from Sheffield Palestine Women Scholarship Fund

Thursday 15th March 7pm Friends Meeting House, Mount Street, Manchester City Centre

The right to Education is a fundamental human right. Israel’s obstruction of education in the West Bank and Gaza Strip not only violates the human rights of individuals. It is an attack on the development of Palestinian society as a whole.

Women’s education is under serious threat in Palestine. The current political situation, particularly in the isolated Gaza Strip, has created a new kind of poverty in Palestine. Unemployment has been growing to a point where families can no longer sustain themselves to provide the basic needs for survival. In these hard times, expenses for education have become a luxury most cannot afford and families have been concentrating on their sons, which puts girls at a major disadvantage when times are hard.

By helping Palestinian women into higher education, we can help their communities, in the poorest of the poor families. 11 per cent of families are headed by women because their husbands have died or are in prison. Without an education it is difficult for these women to support their families and their communities.

Most Palestinians feel that they have lost their land, but one guarantee for the future is an education. This is why the Sheffield Palestinian Women’s Scholarship Fund is so important. Come to the meeting to find out more about the Education of Women in Palestine and how we can support Women to have a chance of University