Gaza Film Exposes Deadly Breast Cancer Taboos

A heart-wrenching Gaza cartoon inspired by a real-life case follows the story of a young Palestinian woman in a refugee camp who dies of breast cancer because of cultural squeamishness about female bodies and difficulty obtaining health care. One doctor in the animated film Fatenah tells the woman, who's worried about a breast lump, to loosen her underwear, while another counsels that it will disappear once she's married.

"It's very taboo to speak about the woman's body in Palestinian society, but in the film it happens and nobody criticizes and nobody says anything about it," said the film's producer, Saed Andoni. He believes the fact that the film is animated "softened the harshness of the topic" and helped people view it with a more open mind. The father of the 28-year-old woman whose death inspired the film wept when he watched it.
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