Educator and family counselor Dr. Hale Samir has issued a powerful call to the Muslim Ummah, urging believers to move beyond emotional rhetoric and symbolic gestures and to provide concrete, sustained support for the women of Gaza, who continue to endure catastrophic conditions under ongoing Israeli aggression.

Speaking to ILKHA, Dr. Samir stressed that the suffering of Gazan women and children is not only a humanitarian tragedy, but a heavy moral and religious responsibility for Muslims worldwide. She warned that admiration without action amounts to abandonment, and that watching from afar while offering praise is incompatible with Islamic duty.

“When Palestinian women—especially the women of Gaza—are mentioned, we should feel shame if we are merely observers,” Dr. Samir said. “What we see in them is true iman: steadfastness, patience, resolve, and endurance. We say, ‘Mashallah to the resilience of Gazan women,’ yet their lived reality today is devastating and unbearable.”

Dr. Samir recalled footage she recently watched that showed a Gazan mother whose infant froze to death due to the lack of shelter and heating. She said such scenes strip away the comfort of slogans and expose the painful truth beneath hollow expressions of solidarity. “This is the reality hidden beneath the words we repeat so easily,” she noted.

Emphasizing that support for Gaza is a religious obligation, not a choice, Dr. Samir stated that all eight categories of zakat recipients currently exist in Gaza. “This means assistance is not charity or goodwill—it is a binding duty upon every Muslim man and woman,” she said. Speaking as a mother, she described the anguish of Gazan women who cannot meet even their children’s most basic needs, explaining that items as simple as a blanket or an umbrella have become luxuries, while mothers struggle daily just to keep their children warm, fed, and alive.

Addressing Muslim women directly, Dr. Samir warned that awareness campaigns, social media posts, and boycotts alone are insufficient. She reminded listeners that the war has dragged on for years, the siege has lasted 17 years, and the oppression has continued since 1948. “Is our role limited to saying, ‘How patient they are’?” she asked. “The war has not ended, and the needs have not decreased. Our duty is not to applaud resistance, but to sustain it.”

She drew attention to the immense burden placed on women who have lost their husbands, explaining that such losses strike at both emotional and economic survival. Dr. Samir noted that children as young as eight are now carrying sacks of flour and jugs of water because their fathers were martyred. Yet, she said, these children are raised with La ilaha illallah on their tongues by mothers who firmly believe that whoever dies upon this testimony enters Paradise.

Quoting the Qur’anic verse, “Indeed, Allah is with the patient,” Dr. Samir described Gazan women as living embodiments of faith, submission, and perseverance. “This is not ordinary patience,” she said. “This is the Qur’an being lived in reality.”

Turning to the broader condition of the Ummah, Dr. Samir called on Muslim women to free themselves from material distractions and empty pursuits. She warned against being consumed by fashion, brands, and consumer culture while Gaza bleeds. “We must ask ourselves: are we raising leaders of conviction, or merely consumers?” she said. “Our mission is to raise a Qur’an-centered generation that declares: ‘Allah is our goal, the Prophet is our guide, and the Qur’an is our constitution,’ and that can say Alhamdulillah even in hardship.”

In a direct message to scholars, preachers, educators, and journalists, Dr. Samir warned that silence in the face of oppression amounts to complicity. She stressed that every word spoken—or withheld—either serves the truth or strengthens injustice through silence. “The war has not ended,” she said, “and therefore the duty of awareness, resistance, and mobilization has not ended.”

Concluding her remarks, Dr. Samir emphasized that Gaza is not merely a Palestinian issue but a matter of faith for the entire Muslim Ummah. She warned that hashtags and emotional reactions are not enough, calling instead for real, sustained action from everyone according to their capacity. She ended with a prayer that Allah awakens hearts, restores a sense of responsibility, and grants the Ummah a meaningful and honorable role in standing with Palestine and its steadfast people. (ILKHA)