Salima: “I came to spend Eid with my family... and ended up divorced.”

"I only lived with him for a year and four months. Then I returned to Palestine. I couldn’t travel back to Jordan, and he couldn’t come to Palestine. After that, I never heard from him again. Since 2002, I’ve been living in Palestine. My eldest daughter was only six months old, and I was pregnant with my youngest. From that day until today, I haven’t seen my husband—not even a phone call, not even from his family." Salima, now 35, came from Syria to marry her cousin and live with his family in Jordan. Today, she resides in an old, unhealthy home in a village near Ramallah, which she says has caused her and her daughters many health problems. She had traveled to Palestine with her child to spend Eid with her family and renew her passport. But the Israeli incursion into Ramallah at that time caused her to lose the document. By the time she was able to issue a new one, she was due to give birth and had to stay. Her husband insisted that she return to Jordan without the baby, as the child had no travel documents. When she refused, he disappeared—never to be heard from again. "My brothers searched for him in Jordan but found nothing. Eventually, we were told he was missing. When all hope was lost, I was divorced in absentia—just so I could be eligible for some financial support to raise my daughters," Salima explains. Salima now relies on the maintenance payments she receives from the Palestinian Maintenance Fund, as well as social welfare and charitable assistance. She adds: "I live off what I receive from the Fund. The people of the village are kind; even shopkeepers I owe money to don’t demand payment out of sympathy. My sister treats my daughters as her own—without her, I wouldn’t survive."