Khawla Al-Azraq is a Palestinian who lived her childhood and youth in a refugee camp, was educated in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s schools, and was raised in a poor and large family. She began her life as a fighter against the oppression of the Israeli occupation and was arrested since childhood for many times.
Khawla, who holds a bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a master’s degree in Counseling, is considered one of the major activists within the Palestinian feminist movement and one of the founders of the Union of Women’s Committees for Social Work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since 1982, the Union has educated thousands of women and encouraged them to participate in politics.
In 1997, Khawla and a group of activists founded the Psychosocial Counseling Center for Women (PSCCW) to work in the field of women’s rights and provide quality services for survivors of gender-based violence. She is now the director of PSCCW and a volunteer in the General Union of Palestinian Women, the largest women’s union in Palestine.
