GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Since the Palestinian Nakba, Palestinian women have faced countless challenges and abuses, starting with being forced to seek asylum in other countries following Israel's occupation of Palestine in 1948, all the way to the current daily violations such as killings and arrests, perpetrated against them by Israel.

Haifa al-Agha, Palestinian minister of women's affairs, talks to Al-Monitor from her office at the ministry in Gaza City about the challenges women face in Palestinian society. She said the accumulation of violence against Palestinian women has made them tough as nails and an example for endurance and the ability to adapt in the face of adversity.

Agha, 65, was born in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip and completed her secondary education at Haifa High School in her hometown in 1968. She obtained a bachelor's degree in public administration from the Higher Commercial Institute in the Egyptian capital of Cairo in 1972, a master's degree in guidance and educational counseling from Oklahoma State University in the United States in 1978, and a doctoral degree from that same university in 1991.

Agha worked as a lecturer and head of the Department of Education and Psychology at Al-Aqsa University in Gaza. She served as the general manager of Internal Control at the Ministry of Education, and then as the general manager of the Public Education Department at the ministry, until she was appointed as minister of women's affairs in April 2014.