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30 Aug, 2011

Gaza’s girl surfer battles pollution and prejudice – The Guardian

Twelve-year-old Sabah Abu Ghanim drags her board through the water as the sinking sun glints on the eastern Mediterranean. The wind has got up a little, and she is hoping the surf will follow – enough, at least, for her to ride the waves.

“I feel the sea belongs to me,” says the Gaza surfer. “When I’m in the sea I feel content and happy.”

Gaza’s 25 miles of Mediterranean coastline are a magnet for a population with few forms of entertainment and a pressing need to escape the drudgery of life under blockade. A small but growing band of surfers use a variety of makeshift boards plus a few sent by surfer activists through the heavily controlled crossings from Israel.

via Gaza’s girl surfer battles pollution and prejudice | World news | The Guardian.