By Bethania Wonagseged —
A 14-year-old girl comes home from school and instead of being welcomed with warm arms, she’s welcomed with a new suitor in exchange for two bags of flour.
If a girl gets raped, it’s even worse. “When rape cases are discovered in schools, you find weddings and celebrations at the school the next day,” a refugee told U.N. investigators.
As residual sniping between Israel and Hamas continues, as Hamas sandbags the implementation of Trump’s peace plan, Gazans are falling back on the legal/cultural code of Islam that treats women as inferior.
The Middle East, North Africa, South and Central Asia continue the historical practice of discrediting girls, of treating them like an asset, of worrying more about family honor than the value of your daughters. Rapists get off easy, and girls have virtually no say in the matter.
UNFPA (UN’s Fund for Population Activities) reported a 123% jump of early and forced marriages and an 11% increase of Gender Based Violence in the first quarter of 2026.
“These trends are attributed to heightened stress felt by women and men forced to live in inadequate shelters, continued limited access to basic resources including food, water, basic hygiene material and clothing,” said a U.N. report that surveyed 230 women in refugee camps.
Another refugee living in a school-turned-shelter said that rape victims are often forced to marry their rapist to avoid any possible scandals. Other families reported that they married off their little daughters so young so that their husband could protect them from any lurking rapists in the refugee camps
Still, other girls are just abandoned because their caretaker simply doesn’t want to take care of them anymore
“Their uncles married them off very young. Do you know why? Because their father and mother were martyred, and their uncle wanted to get rid of the responsibility and expenses,” a woman told the U.N.
Nearly 25% of all households in Gaza are now headed by women, putting them at greater risk of being sexually abused or exploited, the U.N. reports.
“One widow was looking for a tent, and a camp representative told her, ‘I’ll give you a tent, we’ll put you in our camp, and you can come stay with me tonight,’” one witness from Gaza said.
An estimated 2.1 million Gazans are still displaced.
Related content: No starvation going on in Gaza, niece of terrorist warns against giving statehood to Gaza, plenty of Gazans hate Hamas. Sources: NY Daily Post, others.
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