The New Humanitarian 83d ago

When the war started, 18-year-old artist Marah Khaled Al-Za'anin and her family were displaced to a school shelter in Deir al-Balah, living alongside more than 20 families sleeping in the same classroom. With nowhere to go and a full year out of school, she started drawing. She drew because she felt she couldn't speak, couldn't scream, couldn't complain because everyone around her was carrying the same weight. Drawing was the only way to release what was inside her and carry on to the next day. Now, her drawings hang inside a tent in the Al Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City. The same tent where her family sleeps, where they do everything. Her art has been shown in Italy and France, but Marah hopes she can be at an exhibition in person,"to tell the story behind each painting, because the story of a painting is more important than the painting itself. The story is more important than the canvas. I really want to open an exhibition and show my work to the whole world." Reporting and videography by Ansam Elkattaa. Music: "Unanswered Questions" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/