occupybeirut/احتلال بيروت

We walk along the avenue.

The long large sidewalk encircling the capital promontory on the edge of the sea. It’s a spring afternoon, year 2024. More than a decade has passed since, to an April day. The light is warm, like a halo effect of an old postcard. I had left the city long ago.

I turn to look at the cityscape facing the sea and Beirut suddenly grips me in a flash of heartache.

ولدت عام 1988 اي قبل انتهاء الحرب رسميًا بسنتين.

When I thought about what I would like to occupy in Beirut, what first came to my mind was my vagina, my body in general. As a woman, to society – my family, my surrounding and everybody else – my body does not belong to me. How can you not occupy back your vagina, your propriety and a part of your body, while according to society, there are rules and taboos that stand between you and operating it, as you please? It’s like owning a car and yet you cannot drive it.