Women, Faith, and the Longing for Peace

Title: Daughters of Palestine: A Memoir in Five Generations

Author: Leyla K. King

Publisher: Eerdmans Publishing Company, September 2025

ISBN: 978-0802884992

Price: £17.99

There are some books that we pass through lightly, and there are others that pass through us, leaving us altered. Daughters of Palestine belongs to the latter. It is not a book of politics or statistics but something deeper: the stories of Palestinian women whose lives are marked by grief and endurance, yet also by faith, dignity, and extraordinary resilience.

The voices gathered here are those of mothers, daughters, and grandmothers – many Muslim, many in Gaza, others in exile. They speak of raising children under bombardment, of losing homes, of holding families together when safety and bread are scarce. Behind every figure in the news is a life, a face, a story – and Daughters of Palestine lets those stories speak with clarity and grace.

What lingers most is the balance of sorrow and strength. These women refuse to be defined by suffering. They are poets, teachers, organisers, guardians of memory – carrying the weight of displacement yet nurturing hope for peace.

For readers shaped by Scripture, the echoes are clear. Hannah’s lament, Ruth’s loyalty, Mary’s courage and sorrow – all find resonance here. Yet this is also a call to listen across faiths. Many of these women are Muslim, entrusting their griefs and hopes to Allah; ad Jewish women, too, carry burdens of fear and longing.

The book’s quiet power lies in this shared humanity. The lives of Christians, Muslims, and Jews are intertwined in a land all call holy. Each tradition holds a longing for peace, and all affirm that every person bears the image of God. To hear these voices is to be drawn into our common story.

Historical context is given – occupation, displacement, Gaza – but always in service to the women themselves. Accessible yet profound, this is a book for any reader willing to see beyond the headlines.

For us in Wales, the challenge is not to turn away. Daughters of Palestine reminds us that these women could be our own sisters, mothers, neighbours. Their grief and hope call us to respond with compassion, prayer, and solidarity. Neutrality, too often, becomes indifference.

This book does not comfort – it awakens. It confronts us with suffering yet leaves us with hope, faith, and endurance. To stand with the daughters of Palestine is to deepen our own calling, joining our prayers with theirs in trust that peace is a divine promise.

To read Daughters of Palestine is to encounter not an issue far away, but neighbours – women who might be our own sisters, mothers, or daughters.

Tracy Jane Ashcroft