Hello dear readers, my name is Nimat Natsheh and I’m just l a Palestinian woman trying to live my life amidst all of the chaos that’s happening in my country. I graduated more than a year ago after finishing my Bachelor degree in Psychology in Birzeit University. And since then, I’ve been trying to live my life to the fullest.
When I thought about telling my own story through pictures, I immediately thought of photographing what makes me feel unsafe since that’s a familiar feeling here in Palestine. However, as soon as I began photographing I realised that there are a lot of small things in my life which make me feel safe and comfortable. I came to the realisation that tiny little details in life matter the most, especially when we’re often used to focus on the negative aspects in life, we fail to notice and appreciate the beauty in smaller things. As Delilah said in her book Arms Full Of Love “It’s the little things in life that remind us all of the goodness that does exist in this world”. And I realised this while spending one of my weekends trying to photograph whatever made me feel unsafe.
The pictures shown in this story are a collection of my what usual weekends spent with one of my best friends Haneen look like. Her presence, her cooking, her home, her smile and her pet dog Simba all of these smaller details have always managed to cheer me up and keep my going through tough times. Not only this, but there’s also a lot of things that manage to cheer me up as well which I couldn’t even capture. I have always thought about how hard my life is, especially living under a colonialist government and a patriarchal society but I never noticed the beauty that still exists in my life.
Even when we talked about telling a story through pictures in the workshop, I immediately thought about telling the stereotypical story about Palestine which is almost always about either suffering from colonialism or the dehumanisation of Palestinians and presenting them as nothing but savage terrorists. I only thought of talking about how we suffer in Palestine, yet I never thought my story would be about feelings of contentment, happiness, comfort and love.
In short, as much as we as Palestinians face hardships living such life, we still manage to find hope, live and comfort in everything. Lastly, I wish for everyone out there to find hope in every detail, or else life won’t feel worth living.
