Widowed in war, Gaza writer carries her story to the world
Shafaq News – Gaza
Amid the ruins of Gaza’s war, a young writer has turned personal loss into a voice fighting to survive the devastation. Saja Ahmed al-Zuwaidi, 24, has transformed the death of her husband into a literary project she hopes will carry Gaza’s pain—and its dreams—beyond the besieged enclave.
Al-Zuwaidi told Shafaq News her story began in Beit Hanoun, where she was born in 2000 and started writing poetry as a child after the death of an uncle who inspired her early imagination. At 15, she married her childhood love, Khalil Mohammed Shahada, the only son of his family after two decades of waiting.
Their marriage lasted eight years, during which she pursued motherhood through IVF treatments in Gaza and Egypt, all unsuccessful. During that period she wrote her first novel, A Girl’s Story, and was preparing to complete it as she planned to travel to Turkiye for further medical treatment—until the war erupted.
Two months into the conflict, her husband was killed while distributing water to neighbors. The strike, which she says claimed 75 lives, “ended her connection to the future.”
Their bond, she said, was “friendship and love since childhood,” and after his death she chose to remain with his family as a daughter, supported by her own parents.
Displacement, fear, and grief eventually pushed her back to her notebooks. She completed a 17-page collection for her husband, followed by poems on Gaza, Palestine, al-Aqsa, and prisoners. Those writings grew into a larger project: an 80-page book titled A Wounded Homeland’s Tragedy documenting the destruction, hunger, bombardment, and displacement she lived through—along with the loss of her husband, relatives, and close friends.
She said she finally found a chance to publish when she saw an advertisement from an Arab publishing house. She submitted the manuscript as a PDF and received approval within hours. She described the moment as “a joy that rose from under the rubble.”
Al-Zuwaidi believes the book represents more than her personal voice. “It speaks for all of Gaza,” she said, adding that she hopes it reaches audiences abroad “so the world understands our dreams and our suffering.”
Repeated displacement made the writing process even harder. She carried her notebooks and drafts through each evacuation, at times leaving behind clothes and belongings—many of which were later lost when her family home in Beit Hanoun was destroyed. “I was only happy that I saved my words,” she said.
For her, the book became a form of resistance. “It was my weapon, and the pen was Gaza’s voice,” she said, insisting that despite the destruction and blockade, she still believes “a dream can reach the world, even if Gaza’s gates remain closed.”
The war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023. Since then, the ensuing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip has left more than 67,000 Palestinians dead and over 160,000 injured.
