Nuseirat, Gaza Strip — On the old blackboard, teacher Maha Taha filled the space with equations and then let her students work. Minutes later, the only sounds in the classroom were the rustle of pens and the whispers of girls solving math problems.
Maha, 43, has taught math for 20 years. In an olive-green jalabeya and a beige hijab, she quietly made her way to a desk in the corner of the room as her students worked. She has watched generations of girls pass through her classroom, preparing for exams and submitting university applications.
Asked about the girls she taught before the war in Gaza began on October 7, Maha hesitated, then reached for her phone. Scrolling for a photo taken in June 2023, she spoke softly so as not to disturb the class.
“I was proud of them,” she said. “I could see they had a bright future ahead. Their personalities were special, even before you got to the studying. But October 7 changed their lives.”
In the photo, 15 teenage girls in navy school uniforms and white headscarves crowd around Maha in the schoolyard. Some have their arms around each other; others lean toward the camera. All of them are smiling. They had just finished a mock exam and wanted a group picture. Sara Rayan took it, holding out her phone so everyone would fit in the frame.
The girls were 17 and 18 at the time. Like classmates anywhere, they worried about exams and university places, talked about the careers they wanted, and imagined the lives ahead of them.
Four months later, Israel’s war on Gaza began.
Three years on, one of the girls in the photo has been killed in an Israeli air strike. Four have left Gaza. The rest have been displaced, their schooling interrupted and their plans for the future upended.
Al Jazeera tracked down all 15 girls to find out what became of them and the futures they once dreamed of — and to see whether they could be brought back to the same schoolyard for a new photograph.
