Fragments

Authors

Najlaa AttaallahFollow

Abstract

In Fragments (شظايا), Najlaa Attaallah offers a poetic, intimate, and devastating meditation on exile, trauma, and the unrelenting violence endured by Palestinians in Gaza. Written from Reykjavík yet emotionally tethered to her homeland, Attaallah narrates the psychic rupture caused by witnessing war from afar—the guilt of safety, the suffocating pull of memory, and the sense of existing as “a body without certainty.” Across lyrical vignettes, she explores the collapse of ordinary life under the weight of collective horror: sleeplessness, paralysis, obsessive monitoring of news, and the disintegration of routine maternal roles. The text moves between present anguish and childhood recollections—family, pottery workshops, orchards, cousins who shaped her life—culminating in grief for Maha, a beloved cousin lost in Gaza. Throughout, Attaallah interrogates the absurdity of continuing to live normally while over a million Gaza children freeze, starve, or die; she articulates a profound fear that “home” itself is disappearing. The piece blends autobiography, political witnessing, and elegy, offering an unfiltered portrayal of the emotional architecture of war, displacement, and love for a place that continues to exist within her even as it is being destroyed.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Attaallah, Najlaa (2025) "Fragments," International Dialogue: Vol. 15, Article 7.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.32873/uno.dc.ID.15.01.1224
Available at: https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/id-journal/vol15/iss1/7