My own Mondo Award inspiration entry: a long-distance marriage born of the Arab Spring

A few days ago in our call to entries for this year’s Mondo Awards I mentioned how we became acquainted with many new writers last year as a result of the Gaza Two Years Later series. When I need inspiration sometimes I check out their blogs. So, I wanted to share one of the most inspirational stories nurtured by the Arab Spring (thanks twitter!) that grew into a life story, a love story, a Palestinian story and very much a Gazan story. It is these everyday voices that are so brave, beautiful and full of love and life under the most challenging of circumstances who inspire me. 

Without further adieu, by Lina Al-Sharif

Mohammed and Lina’s virtual wedding invitation

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The idea of writing about something very personal is haunting me. As a Palestinian, it’s really hard to know where to draw the line between the political and the personal. But, in Palestine, the personal is political and the political is the personal. I’ll keep the political away and dig down into the personal. This blog has been the vent for me to write some simple and humble accounts coming from a very ordinary person living under extraordinary circumstances. I can’t exclude Gaza; Palestine from anything happened-happens and will happen in my life. Simply put, being a woman from Gaza formed the person that I am today.

Proudly and luckily, I consider myself born and raised in Gaza though I was actually born in Kuwait and moved to Bolivia before coming to Gaza. I feel like I discovered my voice between the digits of these electronic pages, so it’s so much like a small note where I write a blend of the heartily minded digests of my life. I feel now that I am getting married, it’s the time to share my story, a life story, a love story, a Palestinian story.

In the past few months, I’ve been living very fast-paced events. I’d be lying if I say that I 100% fathom all of them. But all I know is that they look like everything I hushed to myself in my sleepless dreams but ironically never thought they would happen. But they did happen!

I’m a few days away from reuniting and getting married to the man that I really respect, admire, and love. Our story proves that love knows no borders, no siege, no time, and no occupation. It all started by a tweet debating whether the loud bang that was heard across Gaza was an Israeli bomb or just some thunder.

We started as friends who shared the same interests. We tweeted together as Egyptians were toppling Mubarak in Tahrir square. After a while of chatting online, Mohammed became my best friend. Long chats about Palestine, the world and the future dreams led us to feel that we can build a future together.

Mohammed is Palestinian South African working in Qatar, Allah (SWT) brought us together through– I am listing all the social media tools we used to communicate– Twitter, WordPress, Facebook, and Gtalk, then later on Skype. He left Gaza just a few days before I first knew about him. The last thing I expected in my life is to be engaged and married to A Palestinian South African! Even my parents when I first told them (yeah I am a Muslim woman who didn’t have arranged marriage, get over your stereotypes), they were like SOUTH AFRICA?! And I was like “CAN U BELIEVE THAT?!” But love knows no difference between South Africa and Palestine. Actually between South Africa and Palestine there’s the love of freedom and dignity.

April, we were officially engaged. But it was without meeting Mohammed in person. From April to September, our chats were often cut by the electricity outages, bad internet connection, and the Israeli siege on Gaza. Hearing the ghastly stories of Rafah crossing, the continuous closures and the difficulty of going out and in Gaza, made us more determined to meet. But there were times when I used to tell Mohamed: “being engaged to a Palestinian is a pain, isn’t?” “I love you more because you are a Palestinian” that answer was enough for me to stand the days, weeks and months of talking on Skype.

April, we were officially engaged. But it was without meeting Mohammed in person. From April to September, our chats were often cut by the electricity outages, bad internet connection, and the Israeli siege on Gaza. Hearing the ghastly stories of Rafah crossing, the continuous closures and the difficulty of going out and in Gaza, made us more determined to meet. But there were times when I used to tell Mohammed: “being engaged to a Palestinian is a pain, isn’t?” “I love you more because you are a Palestinian” that answer was enough for me to stand the days, weeks and months of talking on Skype.

Visit Lina’s blog Live from Gaza for the remainder of her post and then  send us an entry and share something that inspired you this year. Enjoy!