48 Blips for my 48th Year…

I’m phasing out this blog and keeping all my writing on Medium - please find and follow me there! I’ll be posting weekly… go here:linaabirafeh.medium.com I turned 48 on December 25. Yes, I know. Christmas. Also known as LinaMas — to a select few. This has a nice ring to it, I think. In Spanish,…

When was the first time… ??

So this week I got on TikTok. Yes. Am I the last person to join?! Probably. Here was my first blip: Do you remember the first time that you were touched or spoken to in a way that made you uncomfortable? In a way that you didn’t consent to? I do. I was 7. Now I’m 47…

Time to put girls first…

“The first time I was raped, I was 9,” Caroline told me as we sat side by side on a broken branch in the mud. The first time. I couldn’t turn to face her. All I could do was give her space to talk, while I listened… “It’s the bathrooms that are most dangerous. We try not…

Beirut, forgotten. Blast, remembered.

The day before the explosion was ordinary, quiet, unremarkable. But I was unsettled. I slept terribly that night, flip-flopping like a dying fish caught in a net. On August 4, 2020, I woke up well before my alarm. New York City was still quiet and dark. I stayed in pajamas, made coffee, and carried it with…

Menopause Madness: Conversations with my MenoPosse

It all started with a very full bladder and lots of time spent peeing. I’d pee, then pee again. And then the bloating, as if I was morphing into a giant inflatable float for lazy days in summer swimming pools. And then the rapid weight gain — smack on the belly. I’m an apple. A…

Sidewalk Sexism

Every time I walk down a New York City sidewalk, I’m in a 1950s James Dean movie. We’re playing a game of chicken, where — at least in the movie version — two cars drive toward each other along the same path. The first one who swerves out of the way to avoid collision is…

Mind the (Gender) Gap

It’s no secret — no country in the world has achieved equality. No, not a single one. To prove this point, the World Economic Forum created its Global Gender Gap to explain that yes, a big fat gap exists between women and men in the areas of health, education, politics and employment — basically the core building blocks of…

Afghanistan, an earthquake, and what earthquakes mean for women…

A 5.9 magnitude earthquake hit Afghanistan on Wednesday 22 June leaving more than 1000 dead, over 1500 injured, and 3000 homes destroyed. And with this being the worst earthquake in 20 years, the numbers are likely to rise. At this stage, it is estimated that $15 million is needed just for immediate relief — emergency shelter, food, water, and…

Sexual violence in conflict and everywhere

The last few weeks I’ve been talking about violence against women both in conflict and humanitarian settings and also in everyday life post-COVID. Actually, I’ve been talking about violence against women for over 30 years. And we’ve been dealing with it since the beginning of time. I often wonder if this talking is actually doing anything. But then again, silence…

Weathering the Storm: what decades of humanitarian aid taught me about real life

The world seems pretty bleak right now. We’re hardly managing one crisis before another hits. We’ve got too much on our equality and rights agenda — with most of it moving backwards. I think back on my experience in humanitarian emergencies. Surely there’s something we can learn from those decades of work — the stuff we…