Marika Dee

Shatila Girls

“We love life, even when things are bad” seventeen-year-old Fatima and her friends say. These girls belong to a third generation of Palestinian refugees. Their ancestors fled what became Israel in 1948 and settled in Shatila camp, a Palestinian refugee camp covering less than a single square kilometer on the southern fringes of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. 

Girls living in Shatila camp, are growing up in a difficult environment: an erratic electricity supply, undrinkable salty water, cramped housing, few jobs and violence. The overcrowding is severe and getting even worse now that the war in Syria brings an influx of Syria’s Palestinian refugees, fleeing their adopted country’s violence. According to camp administrators, since the conflict in Syria ignited, Shatila’s population has grown with more than a third to about 25 000. Amneh, fifteen, is one of the more recent arrivals from Syria. When she turned up at the camp in December last year, Amneh was shocked at the living conditions of Lebanon’s Palestinians who have no political, social or civil rights. 

The girls cherish their Palestinian identity, claiming the right to return to the land of their ancestors. In the mean time, they aspire to become engineers, doctors, dentists, journalists among others; all professions from which as Palestinians they are banned in Lebanon. By studying hard and trying to obtain a scholarship for higher education, most girls hope to escape the harsh reality of camp life and have a chance at a better life in another country. School dropout rates are much higher for boys than for girls. Girls, of whom families are more protective, stay at home more. Going to school becomes a moment to enjoy some freedom. 

However, like many other young Palestinian refugees from Syria, Amneh can’t continue her education. Overcrowding in the UN funded schools for Palestinian refugees make it difficult to find a place and furthermore, part of the teachings in Lebanese schools is in English, a language that many Syrian girls don’t speak. 

Despite their challenging life as stateless refugees, Shatila’s girls try to enjoy life to the fullest, grasping any opportunity to have some fun. 

  • Sara Abed El Hade (16) checks the messages on her smartphone while her father Ahmed prays and her younger sister Amina watches television. Sara wants to become a graphic designer.
  • On a rare outing with her family, Marwa Hazineh(13), a Palestinian refugee from Syria, spreads out a blanket at the beach in Ouadi Al Zeyneh. She lives with her family in a two-room windowless apartment in Shatila.
  • View over Shatila camp, situated on the southern fring-es of the Lebanese capital Beirut. An estimated 25 000 persons live on a single square kilometer.
  • Marwa Hazineh (13) and her friends Asmaa, Esraa and Arej, all of them Palestinian refugees from Syria, stand on a street in Shatila. Except Marwa, none of the girls go to school anymore.
  • A map of Palestine stands in Shatila’s community cen-ter.
  • Amneh (15) stands next to the matress on which her father Suleyman sleeps. The Dawoud family are double refugees; after a life as Palestinian refugees in Syria, they are dis-placed again.
  • Fatima Gazzawi(16) talks to her friend Heba(25), a Pal-estinian refugee from Syria. Fatima who loves science still hasn’t decided if she wants to become a medical doc-tor or a civil engineer.
  • Sara Abed El Hade (16) looks at the window in the staircase of the apartment building where she lives with her family. Sara wants to become a graphic de-signer.
  • There are frequent power cuts in Shatila. Every night when the electricity comes back on, Amneh dances to the music of TV programs.
  • On a visit to the house of the Abed El Hade family, Fati-ma Gazzawi (16) drinks tea with her friend Fatima (17) and her family.
  • Sisters Sarah (16) and Fatima (17) Abed El Hade share a laugh with Fatima Gazzawi (16) at their apartment.
  • During one of the frequent power cuts in Shatila, Marwa Hazineh (13) and her family sit together by candle light in their windowless apartment. Like most Syrian Palestinians fleeing to Lebanon, the family came from Yarmouk refugee camp in the south of Damascus. Yarmouk, which used to be home to about 150 000 Palestinians, was more a small city than a camp. As the area became the scene of intense fighting, the family lost everything and fled.
  • Amneh Dawoud (14) and Nirmeen Hazineh (15) talk  while a cousin looks on. Amneh, a Palestinian refugee from Syria, can no longer go to school .
  • Nirmeen Hazineh (15), who wants to study political sci-ence, talks to her brother in front of the two-room house the family of nine lives in.
  • Nisreen Hazineh (18) studies on her bed. She wants to become a film director.
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  • Marwa Hazineh (13) sits in the windowless bedroom that she shares with her parents and two siblings. When the family fled Syria, they could only bring a few suitcases with belongings.
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