Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. It is meant to be the story of my stay in Gaza, and of course inevitably my thoughts and feelings about my life and life in general. First, let me introduce myself. My name means ‘Faith’ and I choosed that name for myself ten years ago, when I embraced Islam. Many people have over the years asked my ‘why’ I became a muslim, and there is of course a long and detailed story, which I’m gonna spare you all from, but in short it is because my parents raised me to be kind, honest and generous and when I came to a point in my life that I realized that there was “something out there” Islam seemed the most logical choice for me. The way Islam described God was really the way I already felt.

I am a Swedish woman, who was born and raised in Gothenburg, then at age thirteen moved to a smaller city called Trollhättan and after my graduation I flew out the nest and moved to my favorite city in the whole world; Stockholm. My whole family still live on the west coast, which is well know for it’s beautiful nature. I’ve just turned thirty and I love it. Can I finally be considered an adult now? Me and my husband just celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary this summer and together we share three lovely and stubborn children.

Why are we now in Gaza? Well, this is of course my husband’s home country. Even though he left it by his own choice after his graduation, he have ever since then, more or less, been dreaming of returning one day. As you all know ‘dreaming’ is never done in a realistic manner. Returning to Gaza is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, as you will find out through this blog. The other reason is that we both wanted to raise our children in an Islamic environment, but that environment, in my opinion, does to my disappointment not exist here. At least not in the way that I was looking for.

As I’ve been “blogging around” I realize already at this point that this blog could be heavily commented upon and therefore I would like to make a few things clear from the beginning. Even though I consider this land to be ‘Palestine’ I do realize the complexity of the situation between Israel and Palestine. I don’t believe in black or white solutions. I don’t support Hamas or any one of the extremist groups. I also don’t support the way the State of Israel occupy and oppress the Palestinian people. I have come to learn first hand why Gaza is called the world’s largest prison. However, this blog is not meant to be political. I just want to share what it's like to live in Gaza City, from my point of view.