Debate for Peace

We are highlighting pieces written by the Writers Matter group in Gaza. This first piece is by Malak, and part of the “I am from” collection.

I am a woman who does not break, even when everything around her shatters.

I am the silence when words fail,

the light when electricity disappears,

and life itself when life refuses to be lived.

I come from a land that teaches patience without asking for your consent,

a land that makes you fight without a weapon,

and love life, even when it doesn’t always love you back.

I do not beg — I deserve.

I do not wait for pity — I carve my chances from the rubble,

and plant seeds of hope in soil still trembling from the sounds of war.

I am the one who learned to rise every morning despite sleepless nights,

to work with short breath,

to smile while holding a thousand unspoken wounds in her heart.

I am not a sad story to be told,

I am a lesson in survival to be written.

I am a woman carrying a world of burdens on her back,

yet she walks.

She leans on no one, complains to no one,

because she simply cannot afford the luxury of collapse.

When I’m weak, I stand.

When I cry, I write.

And when I miss life… I create it with my own hands.

I don’t wait for the light — I become it.

I don’t seek salvation — I am it.

This is me.

And here I stand.