Scotland's Human Rights Festival - The Gazan Women

The Gazan Women is a powerful play drawn from real-life testimonies of people living in Gaza. Their stories reflect the personal and complex realities of surviving a genocide with dignity.

The play is based on The Suppliant Women, written by Aeschylus in 463BC and known for the first written use of the word ‘democracy’. In the original, a king must decide whether to protect a group of women seeking refuge, knowing that sheltering them could bring war, whilst refusing could bring the wrath of the gods.

This new version intertwines the lived experiences of Gazans with interviews conducted by Art27 Scotland. The women whose stories are shared do not present themselves as heroes: they are ordinary people trying to hold their families together and give their children a future in a place reduced to rubble.

The play opens a window into life in Gaza and the people behind the statistics, posing the urgent moral questions we, as a UK audience, must wrestle with.

Produced by Art27 Scotland

Art 27 Scotland promotes arts and culture as a right for the common good. As a registered charity, it creates and produces art that celebrates, provokes and raises awareness of why cultural rights matter, particularly in the contexts of the great global shifts of our time, from democracy to climate and migration.

Through artist commissions, socially engaged community projects and cultural democracy facilitation, Art 27 creates connections between communities, cultural sectors, policymakers, institutions and global audiences in thought-provoking programmes that sit at the intersection of arts and human rights.

Presented as part of Scotland’s Human Rights Festival, delivered by Human Rights Consortium Scotland with core partners Art 27 Scotland and Libereco.

With generous support from the World Care Foundation.

Audience Reviews

“Life changing performances… a once in a lifetime show.” 

“Powerful beyond anything I have heard or experienced, and the triumphant, defiant exuberant finish fills me with hope.”