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How flipping cute!! ☺️

As the al-Aqsa Mosque partially reopens after 40 days of closure, it is worth underscoring one of the most steadfast and arduous protectors of the site—the Murabitat. The term itself, which aptly describes the organization’s scope, means “female guardians stationed in ribat” (the latter term meaning “to remain stationed or to maintain vigilant presence at a frontier or sacred site”). The Murabitat organization was founded in 2010 by the NBIM (Islamic Movement in Occupied Palestine) and has consistently received support from Hamas—especially the women involved with the movement. Stationed at al-Aqsa, these guardians have organized Quranic study circles on the compound and confronted settlers and the occupation’s military. One of the Murabitat’s spearheading leaders is Khadija Khweis, a schoolteacher based in East Jerusalem’s At-Tur who, during her studies at Hebron University, was a key activist in al-Kutla al-Islamiyya (formed in 1982 by the Islamic Movement and, after Hamas’ foundation, associated with the movement). Following the organization’s outlawing on 15 November 2015 by the occupation, Zionist security forces have continually carried out violent arrest campaigns removing Murabitat activists at al-Aqsa, targeting their homes, and imposing further punitive measures, including restraining orders against 55 activists barring them from the compound, reducing their number to approximately 300. The organization’s members continue to face persecution. On 10 April 2023, for example, the Murabitat member Raida Jolani was put on trial for publications in which she explicitly called for resistance against the Zionist settlers raiding al-Aqsa. She was arrested for Facebook posts from 19 October 2022, where she wrote “Jerusalem and its surroundings respond to the call of Udai al-Tamimi and his call for hundreds of young people to take up arms after him.” (Udai al-Tamimi was an activist in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades refugee camp in Shuafat, East Jerusalem. He had targeted an occupation soldier who was guarding the checkpoint at the entrance to his village. He later managed to escape capture and was martyred in another attack on 19 October 2022 at the entrance to Ma’ale Adumim.) The reaction of the Murabitat to Tufan al-Aqsa was expressed by leaders Hanady al-Halawani and Khadija Khweis. On October 9, 2023, two days after the outbreak of the operation, al-Halawani, a teacher of the Qu’ran and Hadith, was arrested for posts supporting the resistance. On the morning of 7 October 2023, she had posted: “Allah has made this a day of conquest, victory, control, and ruling—a morning of imminent liberation.” Khadija Khweis was also arrested after she posted messages of support on her social media accounts. She has been detained over 30 times and on 26 March 2026, the occupation issued a travel ban against Khweis. In a 2015 interview, Khadija Khweis said: "In my job [as a protector of al-Aqsa,] I feel equal to men […] I am not a feminist. I am a Muslim woman. Feminism is [a] European concept that applies to European women and culture. We are Muslim Murabitat women, we are respected in our society […] I am a teacher and leader of Murabitat. I know my rights, which Shari’a grants me […] Hamas allocated good political positions to women in its politburo and government in 2007. So, I would like to be a leader in Palestinian society." (Interview on 15 July 2015 with Khadija Khweis, quoted in Ali Abu al-Awar, "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict on al-Haram al-Sharif," Montreal: Guerin Scholar’s Press, 2019, p. 260). Pictured: Khadija Khweis

😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

This is sums up how I felt at Al Aqsa. You return from the 3rd Haramein with such a weight upon your heart, as the stark reality of how much we have abandoned the masjid and its people is no longer hidden from your eyes.

Lunchtime read

@WipingAngel 😆😆😆

Was wondering why I've been oversleeping all my alarms, turns out I had audio off on all of them????

What on earth did I type?! Tweeting when you can’t sleep isn’t the one! *fasts

And it’s still relatively short faded even with the time change!

@tamss0 Dm me and I’ll send you details of my teacher. Uk based and AMAZING Allahuma Barik

Western psychology is not compatible with Islam. Therapy and counselling is so important, but it must be carried out within an islamic framework or else even more damage is caused

@taasssxo Me! The first thing that goes is food, the second is sleep!

I have never understood how an individuals life can get so sad to the point that they lose their appetite? I’m sorry, but that food has done nothing to me in fact, it’s going to make me feel better.

The constant pumping of music into every public space, every idle second of sport, every supermarket and café, speaks to an underlying sickness, a kind of cultural mental illness. As a society we are allergic to silence, terrified of spending even one second with our own thoughts

Handwriting is becoming a lost art. It forces you to slow down, pause and think about what you’re writing instead of tapping on a keypad. There’s also something just so beautiful about the flow of cursive letters.

Someone else is determined to get an early night

Show up. Often that’s all that’s needed. The bullies target the ones they think are weak. Solidarity in numbers.

Those green doors 😭🥹 Going to Al Aqsa was like going home and leaving it breaks your heart 💔

Stuck on a fridge in Gaza Dear mum, my phone was destroyed in the blast, so I was not able to contact you. I feel so dumb for not memorizing the phone number of my own mother. You will shake your head and curse generation Z again. I don’t know if you are alive and I don’t know if you would return to our apartment if you were. Your entire life was between these walls, so I reckon you will. Am assuming you will have run into neighbours and you have already heard the news. Taleen and Sami did not make it out alive. If it’s any comfort am sure both never saw it coming and passed on to a better world instantaneously. I should also stress that the last night they went to bed, they did so with full bellies. It was the last day me and Fares managed to take the boat out to fish. The zionists shoot at any boat now, no matter how small. They didn’t suffer and they had a decent last meal. I know you will suspect am only saying this to dimish your grief, but it’s the truth. And maybe am making things far worse by telling you all this. I feel their spirit around me every day and I know that wherever they are they are helping me stay safe. Like the other day a sudden allergic reaction made me sneeze like twenty times in a row and it made me stop in the street. If I had continued walking I’d be dead now, because a building was struck less than 20 yards ahead of me. A woman’s shoe landed in front of me. It had a foot in it. Without thinking I picked it up intending to bring it to someone, I don’t know who, until I realized I had someone’s foot in my hands and I dropped it and started vomitting. Only some transparent slime came up. It burned my throat. This explosion didn’t injure me. When our home got hit I had a few broken ribs and a metal rod, probably from one of the window casings, pierced my left shoulder like an arrow, but nothing vital was hit and it now only hurts if I put my arm behind my back, stretch or try to lift something over my head. Most things I can do without any pain. I refused pain killers, because there are so many cases that are worse off. To be burned is always the worst, but you know that in Gaza there was no proper treatment for burn victims even before the healthcare system was driven to collapse. Sorry, am rambling. You know how I start rambling the more tired I am. Apart from being tired am fine though. Am afraid to tell you where am going, because you never know who finds this note. But I will be as safe as is reasonable to expect. I swear to you I will name my first born children Taleen and Sami and I will tell them all about them. Every possible detail. Like how Taleen preferred to eat dry cereals with no milk and how Sami wandered off one day when he was 3 and an old man brought him back , carrying him in his neck, and Sami pointed at the man and said: ‘I got me a donkey at market. He good donkey.’ This is where the note ends. In a different handwriting is added: ‘Hello baby, we came to finish the job of our airforce.’ Instead of the note, the young man was taped to the fridge, and the note slammed into his chest with what looked like those hooks you use to fix a tent to the ground. Cause of death was blunt force to the head. The butt of a gun most likely. The mother, after finding her son in the bombed out kitchen, has adopted an orphaned girl. The girl is maybe 3, maybe 4, and only repeats the words: ‘Cover your head, my greatest treasure, cover your head, daddy loves you.’ She wishes she could tell the girl about her parents, but she doesn’t know any details, except that the father was a skilled engineer, but made a modest living as a website designer. Not something the girl can picture. Probably best not to make her think of her parents. The girl only survived because she was found under a huge pile of old phone books in an expensive oak wood chest with holes drilled all over the sides. At the hospital they said it was the cleverest improvized shelter they had found at a blast scene. Too bad it had only been large enough for the girl. The mother regretted not having died in the blast at her own apartment, but she tried to find comfort in the idea that God had decided she had to find this orphan and raise her. Perhaps some great result was supposed to come from her caring for the girl. Every second of every second she felt her heart cracking open to convert the longing for her own three children into loving dedication to only this one girl. The girl will have 30 grandchildren and every single grandchild will be a stinging defeat for the Israeli ‘only when murdering do I not feel weak and fragile’ cult. On the back of her son’s note she has written: ‘I could be sad and shattered for losing you or I can rejoice for having been so unbelievably blessed with your presence in my life for 17 years. I choose the latter.’

I value empathy deeply. You can’t claim justice without it. How we treat people, especially in difficult moments, says everything about our character. Protect your peace, but never lose your empathy. Both can coexist.

Eid Mubarak, everyone. Eid Mubarak to those celebrating in ease and in hardship. Eid Mubarak to those under subjugation, those languishing in prisons, and those forced to practice their faith in secrecy. Eid Mubarak to those far from their families, those carrying grief in their hearts, and those holding onto faith with quiet strength. May Allah grant you relief, honor, and victory, and allow us to be among those who stand for you sincerely. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone. He fulfilled His promise, granted victory to His servant, honored His army, and defeated the allied forces alone. There is no deity worthy of worship except Allah. We worship none but Him, devoting the religion sincerely to Him, even if the disbelievers detest it.

How do people still believe the lie that the resistance was funded by Israel?!! Seriously…. It’s not that hard to pick up a book and read. 🤦🏾‍♀️ Eid Mubarak and Free Palestine