Sabaya

The Arabic word 'Sabaya' carries the whimsy of girls. Just on the precipice ofadulthood, you still can tangibly do the things of childhood, like run outside andhave your hair long and free. The space hasn't run out yet.

The Arabic word "Sabaya" carries the whimsy of girls. Just on the precipice of adulthood, you still can tangibly do the things of childhood, like run outside and have your hair long and free. Space hasn't run out yet.

These portraits were taken in Palestine, Jordan, and with Iraqi, Syrian and Somali refugees take the context of that tender age. The beauty alongside darker political realities resulting from the civil war, humanitarian exodus, and occupation.

Here you meet young girls (and women who lost their Sabaya years but are finding themselves again). Sometimes as reinvention and sometimes because there is no other choice but to be strong for their own daughters.

Photographs are mixed with first-person testimonials, original poetry and prose by Palestinian-America writers, people and proverbs from the Levant.