Palestinian woman leads fight against coronavirus, while others fall victim to domestic violence
Women are taking the lead in the fight against the COVID-19 outbreak in the Palestinian territories, while at the same the virus has brought more violence and suffering to some women.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Aishya Nimr (known by her nickname Umm Iyad), 58, heads in the early morning to the headquarters of the local council of the village of Qira in Salfit governorate in the northern West Bank to follow up on the council’s emergency procedures as part of the efforts to stem the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
Umm Iyad has been heading the village council since 2017 and with the virus outbreak, she also started leading the emergency committee formed to this effect.
Umm Iyad told Al-Monitor that she begins her workday by checking up on citizens in home quarantine in the village, whose number amounted to 21 at the beginning of the crisis but had dwindled to one at the time of this writing. She also is handling the issue of 144 of the village's workers in Israel. Most of the rest of the village’s population of 1,370 work in agriculture.
Umm Iyad also visits the checkpoints set up at the two entrances of the village to check up on the security officers before returning to the village council offices.
