Jessica's Story With Lebanon*
*This was aN attempt to translate the following article in my own words and emotions.
Jessica's story with Lebanon
Jessica has been living fifty years waiting for a paper that would change her life. Her dreams didn't go beyond having a formal identification document that certifying that she lives here. She often said, "If you had returned me to my home country, I would have lived in a less unfair place. I would have been alone but I would have lived where I belong."
Here is Jessica's story.
Amalia was a television and theatre star during the sixties and seventies in Lebanon. She had an assistant from Jamaica who had a baby in 1969, but the father abandoned her suddenly. When the child, Jessica, was three years old, the mother decided to travel to Cyprus to look for the father leaving her daughter with Amalia. Later, Amalia and her husband found out that the mother committed suicide there. Amalia then made a decision which changed her life and Jessica's. She decided to keep Jessica with her and to consider her as a member of her family. However, this decision didn't protect Jessica from racism. Jessica was always rejected. People didn't welcome her as they welcomed Amalia's other children. That happened during the Lebanese civil war which was a sectarian-racist war and where massacres were committed in the name of religion. Ironically, Jessica lived in an interfaith family where Amalia was a Christian and her husband was a Muslim. So having a black child among them was like adding fuel to the fire.
Amalia told her children when they asked her why Jessica is black that she used to drink coffee a lot during her pregnancy and that Jessica was born at night. Later, it was a shock when they discovered she wasn't their biological sister. Inside the home, they all lived happily, they celebrated all the religious festivals. They were like a perfect model, the only thing that spoiled their lives was the unfair society.
One of the neighbors used to call Jessica "slave", another one who was supposed to be well-educated, refused to have her at the same table for lunch with the justification that Jessica might have infectious diseases. One of Amalia's friends refused to visit her during her pregnancy, fearing that if she saw Jessica, she would have a black child like her. Amalia's husband's family asked her once to send Jessica to them to help with the housework. Amalia was a comedian, she received all that with sarcasm but sometimes she couldn't control herself and she wept. Her love for Jessica made some people suspect that she was the result of an illicit relationship and her husband had married her to save her from the scandal. Others said she bought her from a poor woman since she was 'too fat' to have children, but Amalia did have children.
Jessica's life was hell. First, Amalia wasn't allowed to officially adopt her as Islam prohibits adoption. As well as this, Jessica had no official identification document. When Jessica was five years old, Amalia tried to send her to school, but the administration rejected her and the justification was she was black without an ID and she would scare other children. Finally, Amalia found a school that accepted Jessica but later families opposed her presence among their children fearing she might transmit diseases to them. Due to her suffering in schools, Jessica decided to quit education.
After many years, Amalia managed to get a document for Jessica which helped her move easily, provided her health care, and a place to be buried when she dies. Jessica worked as an assistant for Amalia and paid taxes like other Lebanese, however; she couldn't get the citizenship.
One day, when Jessica was young, a famous cleaning detergent company wanted to have Jessica in its advertisement. The idea was to put Jessica in the washing machine, then to get a white girl out of it to show how powerful the detergent was in removing 'dirt'.
From 1969 until 2014, the date of Amalia's death, Amalia's main concern was taking care of Jessica. She used to say "She has no place or home except our small family". But, during her fifty years, Jessica couldn't have a normal life. She had no work, no ID, no future. Until the last moment of Amalia's life, Jessica couldn't have her legal right due to the racist-sectarian complex of Lebanon, where the mother can't give her nationality to her children, where the house workers suffer injustice and oppression, where the poor foreigner is a subject of mockery in TV programs, where the people can't obtain their own rights but know well how to deprive others of their rights.
Jessica's story with Lebanon
Jessica has been living fifty years waiting for a paper that would change her life. Her dreams didn't go beyond having a formal identification document that certifying that she lives here. She often said, "If you had returned me to my home country, I would have lived in a less unfair place. I would have been alone but I would have lived where I belong."
Here is Jessica's story.
Amalia was a television and theatre star during the sixties and seventies in Lebanon. She had an assistant from Jamaica who had a baby in 1969, but the father abandoned her suddenly. When the child, Jessica, was three years old, the mother decided to travel to Cyprus to look for the father leaving her daughter with Amalia. Later, Amalia and her husband found out that the mother committed suicide there. Amalia then made a decision which changed her life and Jessica's. She decided to keep Jessica with her and to consider her as a member of her family. However, this decision didn't protect Jessica from racism. Jessica was always rejected. People didn't welcome her as they welcomed Amalia's other children. That happened during the Lebanese civil war which was a sectarian-racist war and where massacres were committed in the name of religion. Ironically, Jessica lived in an interfaith family where Amalia was a Christian and her husband was a Muslim. So having a black child among them was like adding fuel to the fire.
Amalia told her children when they asked her why Jessica is black that she used to drink coffee a lot during her pregnancy and that Jessica was born at night. Later, it was a shock when they discovered she wasn't their biological sister. Inside the home, they all lived happily, they celebrated all the religious festivals. They were like a perfect model, the only thing that spoiled their lives was the unfair society.
One of the neighbors used to call Jessica "slave", another one who was supposed to be well-educated, refused to have her at the same table for lunch with the justification that Jessica might have infectious diseases. One of Amalia's friends refused to visit her during her pregnancy, fearing that if she saw Jessica, she would have a black child like her. Amalia's husband's family asked her once to send Jessica to them to help with the housework. Amalia was a comedian, she received all that with sarcasm but sometimes she couldn't control herself and she wept. Her love for Jessica made some people suspect that she was the result of an illicit relationship and her husband had married her to save her from the scandal. Others said she bought her from a poor woman since she was 'too fat' to have children, but Amalia did have children.
Jessica's life was hell. First, Amalia wasn't allowed to officially adopt her as Islam prohibits adoption. As well as this, Jessica had no official identification document. When Jessica was five years old, Amalia tried to send her to school, but the administration rejected her and the justification was she was black without an ID and she would scare other children. Finally, Amalia found a school that accepted Jessica but later families opposed her presence among their children fearing she might transmit diseases to them. Due to her suffering in schools, Jessica decided to quit education.
After many years, Amalia managed to get a document for Jessica which helped her move easily, provided her health care, and a place to be buried when she dies. Jessica worked as an assistant for Amalia and paid taxes like other Lebanese, however; she couldn't get the citizenship.
One day, when Jessica was young, a famous cleaning detergent company wanted to have Jessica in its advertisement. The idea was to put Jessica in the washing machine, then to get a white girl out of it to show how powerful the detergent was in removing 'dirt'.
From 1969 until 2014, the date of Amalia's death, Amalia's main concern was taking care of Jessica. She used to say "She has no place or home except our small family". But, during her fifty years, Jessica couldn't have a normal life. She had no work, no ID, no future. Until the last moment of Amalia's life, Jessica couldn't have her legal right due to the racist-sectarian complex of Lebanon, where the mother can't give her nationality to her children, where the house workers suffer injustice and oppression, where the poor foreigner is a subject of mockery in TV programs, where the people can't obtain their own rights but know well how to deprive others of their rights.
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