Gaza’s Surfer Girls

[oberliner]

At dusk, the beach outside Gaza City is packed. Thousands of bodies cram the narrow Mediterranean shoreline, while bellowing touts ply candied apples, cotton candy, and baked yams. Rawand Abu Ghanem and I are sitting by the water.

The 13-year-old looks up at me from where she has been tracing patterns in the sand. “What do you wear when you swim in America?” she asks. I hesitate before replying, “Not much.”

Rawand nods sagely. “When you surf in America, do people stare at you?”

“No,” I answer.

“They do here,” she sighs.

Rawand is one of four girls learning to ride the waves of the Gaza Strip. They are the newest members of the Gaza Surf Club, a community of two dozen surfers in the Palestinian coastal enclave of 1.5 million. We were supposed to surf together tonight, but Rawand took one look at the crowded beach and decided against it. “Too many people,” she declared.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/gazaand8217s-surfer-girls/8256

[bemildred]

1. We all seem to get trapped by the culture we are born into.

Only a few ever break free.

[madrchsod]

2. not much of a surf in that picture....

i bet they`d love to go to California.....

[shaayecanaan]

3. Not much surf anywhere in the Mediterranean

its no better in Lebanon, I can tell you that. Good for kite surfing though.

[oberliner]

4. They won’t be able to surf after they turn 17

I bet they'd love to live in a society where that wasn't the case.

[ConsAreLiars]

5. Ah! You found one more reason

to justify and explain the mass imprisonment and collective punishment of the Palestinians. Excellent work, well up to the highest standards needed to defend the ongoing atrocities and constant brutality. Good Job Well Done!