I remember myself as a girl after the second intifada, standing in front of a mirror holding a hairbrush or a remote control and imitating the deep, calm voice with which she ended her reports: Shireen Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera, Palestine.

That iconic sign-off, a catchphrase that every Palestinian child or teenager growing up in the shadow of the second intifada in the early 2000s associated with the new Al Jazeera reporter, took on a new meaning Wednesday: painful, heartbreaking and bleeding. Who would have believed that the woman with this deep, courageous voice would leave us so soon, in such a cruel way.

As I read the eulogies, the social media posts and the reactions to her death, I came to know that there is hardly a girl in the Arab world who hasn’t stood before a mirror, a hairbrush or a remote control in her hand, and said those........

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