Gaza: An electricity crisis has now piled up more burden on the already struggling Palestinian women in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Hasna Abu Shawish, 40, living in the beach refugee camp in Gaza city is suffering due to the electricity crisis that has increased hardships.
Just like many of the Palestinian refugees in the camp, she is unable to afford a portable generator. When electricity goes, the family huddles around the warmth of candlelights in the one-room house they live in.
"By afternoon our house is completely dark and there is not much we can do," she said. "My children can barely read and do their homework, and I've had to borrow money to buy a pair of glasses for one of my girls because her eyesight keeps getting worse," Hasna said.
Hasna, like many other women in Gaza Strip, has stopped using cooking gas in order to preserve whatever is left with them. Instead they cook using firewood and mud ovens.
Endless torment
"We're mostly eating sandwiches these days for I can't afford to use the gas since I don't know when I can get my gas tank refilled again," she said.
Like many people, a small task like washing clothes has become impossible for Hasna, causing endless torment for herself and family.
"Just last week, we got some electricity for two hours at 2am and I quickly woke up and put a load into the washing machine. However, before finishing the laundry, the electricity went again and the clothes remained unfinished and wet," she said. "This always tends to put my husband in a bad mood and blames me for the delay of the house work," she added.
Naila Al Ashi, Director of the Palestinian Women's Affairs Centre (WAC) in Gaza Strip said: "When there is no electricity, women cannot complete their work in their homes. The children are stressed out and scared and women have to spend majority of their time comforting them. They have to find ways to juggle household expenses in order to afford fuel for generators. All of these things increase domestic problems, putting women at risk of abuse and violence."
Gaza's power plant has shut down twice and the 1.7 million residents of the coastal strip face up to 18-hour blackouts each day.
"The electricity crisis truly does put women under stress, while her husband and male sons might leave them alone at house if they felt bored."
