- Photojournalist Monique Jaques first visited the Gaza Strip in 2012 to document Operation Pillar of Defense — one of many conflagrations between Israel and the military wing of Hamas.
- While there, Jaques was struck by the story the media wasn't telling — that of the everyday lives of Palestinians living in Gaza.
- Jaques befriended many Palestinian women in Gaza and documented their lives over the next five years to show an untold perspective on the conflict.
- Her photos have been collected in a book, called Gaza Girls, released earlier this year.
Photojournalist Monique Jaques first visited the Gaza Strip to document Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012, one of the many conflagrations between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
While there, she was struck by the dissonance between what she saw on the ground in the blockaded territory versus what was shown and reported in the media.
"Every image I saw was extremely violent and only had men in them. You never saw a woman and, if you did, she would most likely be covered head to toe," Jaques told Business Insider. "That image wasn’t matching up with the image I saw and the people I met."
That dissonance, and a budding friendship with her Palestinian translator, convinced her that there was a deep, untold story in the contested area. She knew that she had to tell the story of daily life of Palestinians, and women in particular, after the fighting stopped.
Over the course of five years, Jaques returned again and again to speak with Palestinian women in Gaza and document their lives. Her commitment to telling their story allowed her to capture "stolen moments" and show a side of life in the territory rarely seen.
The work has now been collected in a book, called Gaza Girls, which was published earlier this year.
Jaques first began documenting the women of Gaza after befriending her translator during her assignment covering Operation Pillar of Defense. The woman, a Palestinian, told her that she wanted to introduce Jaques to "a world no one is talking about."
Though photographing women was difficult due to Gaza's conservative culture, Jaques said that she was aided by a network of Palestinian women who understood the importance of telling the human-side of Gaza. Those women helped Jaques build relationships that lasted years.
Jaques said it helped that she wasn't on assignment. She was able to spend as much time as she needed to build relationships and gain trust. Jaques ended up spending five years visiting Gaza, returning for weeks at a time every few months.
See the rest of the story at INSIDER
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