“Female photojournalists can’t be found in Gaza. It’s a war zone and the nature of news is mostly violence,” says Eman Mohammed, a 25-year-old Palestinian journalist, wife and mother who lives in the Gaza Strip and knows all to well about the struggles women face in the Israeli-occupied territory.
At the age of 19, Mohammed worked multiple jobs to save enough money to buy her own photography equipment while studying journalism at a local university. But when she landed a job as a staff photographer her colleagues were not exactly welcoming. “I was harassed, threatened and abused by my colleagues, now I’m more independent in my work style and don’t mind the staring or the looks. I proved them wrong when I was nine months pregnant covering the second war on Gaza.”
Eman says it was her own mother’s encouragement that pushed her to pursue her dream, “My mom, a pharmacist and single mother in a very conservative community, never worked as a journalist but managed to encourage the photography passion in me, teaching me the importance of capturing special moments and pushing me to go against all odds.”
While Mohammed may have overcome many of the obstacles of being a female photojournalist in Gaza, the region still presents other challenges. “Photographing the bodies of people I worked with a couple of days ago during the war was the hardest, I was shooting all blurry at first. Then you have the kids and their mothers, and that can never be an easy thing to shoot. Nothing about war is pleasant or easy. Honestly I don’t think any photojournalist, male of female, is safe in such a place. You don’t hear a warning siren and your vest with a “PRESS” tag on it won’t protect you, not fully.”
Eman Mohammed currently works as a freelance photographer and reporter in Gaza. Her work has been published in the Washington Post, Mother Jones, the Guardian, Le Monde, and Geo International. She was recently recognized by Photoboite.com as one of their 30 Under 30 Women Photographers.
- Katie Wood, kwood@denverpost.com
Three children from the Khader family bathing in their tub on top of their destroyed house in the Ezbet abed rabo area in the northern Gaza Strip. Khader's family lost their house during the Israeli field operation during the war in Gaza from December 2008 through January 2009.
A Palestinian tunnel worker is lowered into a tunnel in Rafah. Israel has maintained a tight blockade on Gaza since Hamas seized power in 2007 but is considering easing restrictions to allow essential goods into the area due to increasing pressure from the international community. In June of 2010, Israel pledged to allow all goods into Gaza except weapons and items deemed to have a military use under its decision to ease its three-year blockade of the Palestinian territory but resources are still scarce. (Photo by Eman Mohammed/Getty Images)
A Palestinian security officer watches hundreds of thousands of Hamas supporters celebrate the 21st anniversary of establishing the Islamic Movement of Resistance (Hamas) in Gaza City on Dec. 14, 2008.
A general view of Gaza's beach on a busy Friday afternoon. (Photo by Eman Mohammed/Getty Images)
Sabah, 14, the only female surfer in the Gaza strip going into the water for a warmup before she starts her daily hour of surfing.
A Palestinian family-seen through an old Israeli security wire-walks by the beach of a former settlement at sunset in Gaza city.
Palestinian fishermen collect fish from the nets they set earlier in the morning at the Gaza City beach, on March 26, 2009. Palestinian fishermen are denied from going more than one mile out into the Gaza Sea, as the Israeli Navy rarely allows them to leave the shallow waters.
A young Palestinian boy sells fish by Gaza's port. (Photo by Eman Mohammed/Getty Images)
A young Palestinian boy helps his grandfather harvest wheat in Dair al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip.
A Palestinian boy carries an empty cooking-gas cylinder during the truce hours during the last week of war in Gaza in January 2009.
The Khader family breaking their fast at sunset time during Ramadan in 2009 next to their destroyed house, where the family currently lives at Ezbet Abed Rabo, northern Gaza strip.
Eight Palestinian children from the same family look out as a funeral (not seen) passes by, as laundry spreads along their window.
Three young Palestinian girls wearing their mother's hijabs while sitting in front of their house at Al Shatea refugee camp in 2009.
Palestinian children play in the rubble of a mosque in Gaza City, Gaza Strip on June 5, 2009.
Young Palestinian children gathered by Gaza's sea port waiting their turn to jump into the water at sunset.
Young girls read verses of the Qura'an at Dar el Quran in Gaza. (Photo by Eman Mohammed/Getty Images)
A young Palestinian boy works on his homework while sitting on a grave in a cemetery where he lives with his family. The family had been living inside Al Balad Cemetery for decades despite continued warnings from the government.
A Palestinian girl recites Qura'an verses in a mosque in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, on June 24, 2009. Hamas launched summer camps dedicated to the study of the Qura'an, drawing a broad participation from Gazans.
Sabha Abu Halima and her son Ahmed Abu Halima in their house which was mostly destroyed by fire by phosphoric bombs used by Israeli war planes during the Gaza war on May 5, 2009. Sabha, her son Ali and grand-daughter Farah, 2, were seriously burnt after being exposed to the phosphoric bombs inside their house, while the father of the family Sa'ad Alah Matr Abu Halima was killed with 5 of his children
A Palestinian boy from Abu Halima's family looks through a hole, made by an Israeli tank, at the doorstep of his house.
A Palestinian man yells in horror outside the Al Saraya police compound after it got shelled twice with two missiles from Israeli war planes on Dec. 28, 2008 during the Gaza War. Black clouds of dust covered the skies of the Gaza Strip in the early morning of Saturday, December 27, 2008. After multiple Israeli war planes started a series of air raids in more than sixty different locations on police stations and compounds as the first day of a 23 days of war in Gaza started; Palestinian medical sources in Gaza declared that at least 1,300 Palestinians were killed; nearly a third of them children; 14 doctors; 4 journalists; 236 others of policemen and 5; 500 injured in the Israeli operation; which began on 27 December 2008.; The estimation of the lands and buildings losses were assumed to be around 40 million dollars officials in Gaza's finance ministry confirmed.
A Palestinian man reacts after losing his house's farm and his only living source in northern Gaza Strip. The farm was completely destroyed during the Israeli air raids during the war in Gaza 2008-2009.
Mohammed Khader feeds pigeons in front of the remains of his house, which was destroyed during Israel's 22-day offensive that ended in January, in Jabaliya, northern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2009. Khader, his wife Ebtesam and their seven daughters now live without electricity or basic supplies.
Palestinian women and children wait their turn for a boat ride in the Gaza Sea. (Photo by Eman Mohammed/Getty Images)
Palestinian children flying kites on the beach of Gaza during a UN-sponsored summer camp festival in the city on July 30, 2009. More than 6,000 children in the Gaza Strip sought to break the Guinness World Record for kite flying in a rare moment of respite from the war-battered enclave's daily life.
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