We are not numbers: young voices from Gaza Part I

GAZA… what do we know about this part of the world, sharing its borders with Egypt and Israel? 

For most us what comes to mind is what we hear from the medias, about the Gaza stripe, the intifadas, the Hamas, the Palestinian refugee camps, the bombings and the loss of human lives. But do we really know much about its people, their lives, their hobbies, their favorite food and their joys? How do they cope with their sufferings, the noises of the rockets falling on their homes?

The new book “We are not numbers, voices from Gaza” a collection of Palestinian and Lebanese stories, gives an insight of just that. It was the idea of American journalist, Pam Bailey, who in 2015 decided to give a chance to young writers from these regions to tell their human stories. Through their essays and poems the rest of the world would slowly  know much more than just numbers. Each writer is mentored by a professional writer. Ramy Abdu, board chair for the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor supports Bailey’s project.

Two of the authors, Malak Mattar and Basman Derawi, were touring Switzerland last week and stopped in Zurich where they gave a reading at the Litteratur Haus. On the podium with them were two women, the journalist Helen Aecherli and the actress, Lara Körte.

Malak Mattar had traveled from Turkey, where she is a student in Political Sciences at the university of Istanbul. She received a scholarship last year. Basman,a physiotherapist in Gaza, had come directly from Gaza after having spent two weeks stuck in Cairo. Getting a visa was not an easy task.

The reading was done in German and the questioning in English. The quarto made the evening a success. The journalist was asking interesting questions, and the reader was making you feel as you were present and you could feel their pains and tears flowing on their faces. It could have been a depressive evening but it was full of laughter due to the good humor of Malak and Basman.

The first thing we ask ourselves is how did these two amazing strong human beings, who both stand up for the equality of rights between men and women, cope with the war?

Malak, 18 years old today, was just 13 during the 51 days war in 2014. She found the peace she needed in painting. The noise of the bombs made her anxious, nervous and sad. She had received a brush and watercolors in school and one day she started using them. She never stopped painting till that day. In a matter of years she started her own studio at her parents’ home, which she misses today. Painting is her identity, she said happily, like a soulmate. She smiled. Her wish is to keep a balance later between a political science job and painting. She recognizes that in Gaza every thing is political so she won´t be able to go away from it.

Since she left home, she has traveled to 7 countries for exhibitions. Malak paints portraits of women. “Each time I paint men, it turns into a woman, I don´t know why;” she said laughing. Women are unique she continued, “they raise their kids to love their countries.” You feel safe next to a mother you think the bombs won´t kill you.

PART II will be published tomorrow. 

• Basman Derawi
• Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor
• Gaza
• Lenos Babel
• Litteratur Haus
• Malak Mattar
• painting
• Pam Bailey
• Ram Abdu
• war
• We are not numbers
• writing
• Zurich