Gaza's little surfer girl

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"There are few surfers in the Gaza Strip, and fewer still are female. One of them is Sabah Abu Ghanim, who loves the joy and the freedom of the sea. But, as Rebecca Collard learns, the 12-year-old realises that cultural and social norms may bring an end to her riding the waves.

Sabah Abu Ghanim's brother carries her new surfboard across the seaside road that separates her family home from Gaza's Mediterranean coast. The board - donated by an American surf group - is two feet taller than 12-year-old Sabah.

She slips her board into the water and wades out towards the small, barely curling waves. Outfitted in a professional black-and-blue wetsuit, she pushes the board deeper into the sea and waits for a strong wave to propel her long enough so she can stand up on it.

Good surf on Gaza's beaches is rare - the larger swells occur in the colder, winter months - but Sabah comes in search solely of big waves.

"There is a connection between me and the sea, and there, for a little time, I feel happy and free," the seventh-grader says, pulling on her braided ponytail. "It belongs to me, and I belong to it."

http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/gazas-little-surfer-girl

[oberliner]

1. Heartbreaking story

"I see my smaller sisters and cousins going to surf. I really hope I can go again but because our society doesn't accept that, what can I say?" says Shoruq, who has just crossed the line from being seen as a girl to something closer to an adult.

While girls and women can be found frolicking on Gaza's beaches in the hot summer months, they do so fully covered and in shallow waters. Sports are something typically left for men, and few Gazan women know how to swim.

<end of excerpt>

Sadly, the patriarchy is alive and well in Gaza.

[MADem]

2. +1. nt