The Face of the Woman

Lebanon counts today one refugee every 3,5 inhabitants, more than half are children.

In Lebanon there are no real refugee camps, but mainly “informal settlements” where people have limited facilities, even though UNICEF, together with local NGOs such as AVSI and Beyond, provides drinking water, education and other basic needs.

This is a photographic story centred on the role of women, their struggle to face the war, the prejudice, the escape.

Marj El Khoukh informal settlement.

Wazani informal settlement, at the border with Israel. “ISIS has erased the face of the woman” says Radija “If a woman is out on the streets
with a man that is not one of her closes relatives she gets arrested and the man gets killed. If she decides to work the fields, she has to wear the burqa.
Have you ever tried hoeing the ground with clothes covering your hands and feet? Escape? If you succeed, this where you end up.”

Wazani informal settlment. Sahar, 15, walks back to her tent with her son Siham.
She declares she loves her husband, and that he doesn’t beat her anymore: “it’s been two days now”.

Saadnayel informal settlement, at about 20 km from Syrian border. Amina ,17, with her mother in their tent. Amina was married as a child
and got pregnant. She was treated so badly by her husband and his family that she threatened her father she would commit suicide if he
didn’t go pick her up. He did, together with his wife, Amina now lives in the tent with her parents.

Wazani informal settlement. Sahar, 15, was given in marriage by her father’s second wife while running away from Syria, her mother
was left behind at the beginning. When they were reunited her mother wasn’t happy at all with the decision that was made, but it was too late.

Wazani informal settlement. Sahar plays with her five months old child during an assembly on women’s daily issues in the camp, mainly gender based. The men are forbidden inside.

Marj El Khoukh informal settlement. A Syrian family living in the tent: the 57 years old mother, Turbiyeh, has lost her son in the war back home,
she now lives with his three children, Shaymaa, Inaam and Israa and her three other sons, Ibrahim, Abdo and Nidal.