There’s a lot about the Gaza strip that you probably have read about, but did you know that along its 25-mile Mediterranean coastline is a very active surf scene?
“Once I paddle out past the breakers — I forget my troubles,” says Gaza surfer Ali Erheem. “It’s pure happiness.”
And one of Gaza’s best and most famous surfers is a young woman named Sabah Abu Ghanim who is featured in a German documentary called Gaza Surf Club. At a young age, her father taught her how to surf but now that she’s seventeen, her parents want her to marry and give up surfing. Unlike nearby Palestine where many women own their own businesses, compete in sports and seek advanced degrees, the culture in Gaza is very conservative and many women have more traditional roles.
“I wish I could go back to being a child,” says the teen surf queen. “That’s when I felt most free — surfing.”
