The Israeli aggression on Lebanon began on October 8, 2023, and significantly intensified in September 2024, causing to date a massive internal displacement of circa 1.4 million individuals, of whom circa 520,000 are women. In addition, UN Women estimates that circa 12,000 displaced families are headed by women.

The forced movement of people continues unabated as entire villages and neighborhoods are threatened and then targeted with strikes that are completely demolishing dwellings and living spaces and taking with them lives and livelihoods.

At the time of writing this article, 1067 shelters were opened to host displaced families. 70% of these are educational institutions which will surely not serve their function as the war continues unabated.

The bombardments have damaged and rendered some 100 healthcare facilities in South Lebanon, as well as 77% of the total public schooling network. Other vital services have been destroyed, such as 28 water facilities serving some 360,000 people in South Lebanon. The telecommunication sector has been severely damaged along with other vital sectors of an economy that is already frail and dysfunctional.

As we celebrate for the second year running the International Day of Care and Support, we take this opportunity to note the critical importance of care during conflict and displacement.

The burden of care on women and girls in countries of the MENA region is a starting point that is inherent to communities ruled and regulated by conservative gendered norms. Women and girls are under a non-written yet powerful obligation to care for their families and to perform, without recognition or remuneration, care labor that varies between household work, health care, mental support, and other forms of physical labor. 

As living conditions worsen as a result of shocks caused by a combination of steep economic crisis, war, and forced displacement, women’s car work multiplies whilst any support they used to count on disappears. This is further exacerbated by their increasing responsibility to manage the very difficult living conditions on the streets or in makeshift shelters and make up for the absence of health and educational services as well as the pressure to secure food and safety for their families.

The Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University of Beirut is a member of the Global Alliance for Care (GAC), which is the first global multi-stakeholder community that facilitates and fosters spaces for collective action, advocacy, communication, and learning about care, its recognition as a need, as work, and as a right. We have recently kicked off the MENA Working Group on Care on September 12, 2024. Whilst we seek to raise awareness, produce knowledge, communicate, and lobby for the recognition of care in public and social policies, one of our key objectives is also to center care as a priority during conflict and other crises. 

Know more about our work on care here and follow our social media accounts.

Lina Abou-Habib
Director
Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship
American University of Beirut