Narratives of survival and resilience in a group of Palestinian women resisting ongoing political violence and structural oppression: a qualitative study through live events calendars

Responding to the need for more information concerning the mental health and psychological wellbeing of women living amidst political oppression and war, this study aimed to explore specific factors that contribute to women’s individual and collective perceptions about war and the associated traumatic life events that occurred during their lives. Moving from a socio-ecological and culture-informed perspective, we used narrative timelines elicited from 21 Palestinian women in Gaza, both individually and collectively, as a tool for both data collection and intervention. A deductive, top-down, thematic content analysis procedure was used to categorize data. The main events outlined by the women in their historical accounts, both individual and collective, were linked to political events in and surrounding Palestine. The Palestinian women’s individual life events’ calendar reflects a constant attempt in balancing and compensating traumatic events with sources of well-being related to social support and family. Individual and collective narrative activities contributed to generate a significant reframing in the attribution of meaning and emotional perceptions of the participants. Women articulated how they build resilience through transgenerational and daily practices of resistance that encompass indigenous strategies of coping and skills of survival.