Finding My Voice: Embracing Palestinian Identity
From The Human Challenge by Vanessa Ferlaino
April 30, 2026 · 42 min
About this episode
Noora Sharrab shares her journey of embracing her Palestinian identity and her efforts to support Palestinian women refugees through education and entrepreneurship.
With Palestinian parents, Noora Sharrab had to fight long and hard to push past their traditional “Walk By The Walls” mentality to embrace her Palestinian identity. Questioning her experiences crossing into Palestine at a young age and challenging what she learned in her early education, she was called to pursue the truth of her people’s history throughout university. While completing her Master’s Degree, a door was opened — a door that she couldn’t close. It led her to face the harsh reality of the millions of Palestinian refugees scattered across refugee camps. Noora started a non-profit to provide education scholarships and programming for these women. Eventually, this would lead her to launch SITTI Soap , a social venture that helps Palestinian women refugees earn equitable income. SITTI Soap pays fair wages to these women, who hold cultural practices and traditional wisdom, like Tatreez patterns and olive oil soap pressing, to make apparel, accessories, bath and beauty products, and more. Each product tells a story of Palestinian culture and roots. With the organization expanding, Noora continues to show her children the injustices that exist in the world, and to never stop…
People in this episode
Host: Vanessa Ferlaino
Guest: Noora Sharrab
Topics covered
- Palestinian identity
- refugee education
- social entrepreneurship
- cultural heritage
- women empowerment
Keywords
- Palestinian identity
- refugee camps
- SITTI Soap
- education scholarships
- women empowerment
- Tatreez patterns
- social venture
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: SITTI Soap
Places: Palestine, Palestinian, refugee camps
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