LB: After two years of working in Kuwait and passing my exams in Lebanon, at the age of 22, I decided to go live with my sister in Beirut and start my new life. Each unit I had to finish and send it back to my tutor and he would send me back his comments by post again, recorded on a cassette. There was no internet at the time, so they would send me the materials by post. I was interested in business but not teaching.” © Laura BoushnakĪt the same time I enrolled in a distance-learning course at the New York Institute of Photography, that I found while flipping through a photography magazine I had bought. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do back then. “When I did my university entry tests I realized that my results were high in social sciences subjects. in Curriculum & Assessment from the University of London in the UK. Basma holds a B.S in Special Education, from Dar Al Hekma University, specializing in the field of the Gifted & Talented. And I fell in love with the social sciences, sociology, psychology, anthropology… They are so close to our daily life and to what is happening around us.īasma, who travels often for work, prepares her luggage in her bedroom. And that is what I did for two years, while I worked at the school in Kuwait. So you could study, read the material and then just come at the end of the year to apply for the exams. Then a friend of mine, who was studying sociology at the Lebanese University, told me that attendance was not obligatory. During that time, I also began to think about studying photography because I liked carrying a camera around, taking photos of my friends and family. So I ended up working as a receptionist for an American school for two years, saving up money. Basically, there was not much direction I could turn to where I could create new and educational possibilities for myself. At that time, the internet, where you could apply to grants or scholarships, wasn’t as widely spread as now. Plus there was the financial part-my dad couldn’t afford education. I had a Lebanese travel document for Palestinian refugees, which makes travel quite difficult. Thirdly, at that time I did not have a passport. Secondly, my dad was unfortunately not so keen on our education because he believed that a woman should end up getting married and then her husband would take care of her. For one, foreigners in Kuwait at the time were not allowed to go to the public university, and private universities were not available. Laura Boushnak: After I graduated from high school in Kuwait, it was difficult for me to go to university. Can you tell me more about that and how this experience shaped you as a person and photographer? © Laura BoushnakĮefje Ludwig: In the introduction to your book, you tell the reader how obtaining a degree and enjoying education as a younger girl did not come naturally to you for many different reasons. Therefore, many students seek to further their education abroad. As for higher education in Gaza, it is limited and many disciplines are not available. However, official figures for literacy are high 93% for women, 98% for men. Classes are also large, with anywhere between 40 to 50 pupils in each. To make up for the shortage of educational facilities, schools run on double shifts. The UN, which runs many of the territory’s schools, says an additional 440 schools are needed by 2020 to cope with the expected growth in the population. In this interview for LensCulture, she speaks to Eefje Ludwig from her home about how her own desire to change and improve her life motivated her to start this project and drives her continued focus on the importance of quality in education. Between 20, Boushnak travelled to Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and Gaza to take portraits of women who have faced barriers to their education-from learning to read late in life or sidestepping family objections to pursue their studies.īorn to Palestinian refugee parents in Kuwait, Boushnak is now based in Sarajevo in Bosnia. Motivated by her own experience, the project weaves together the personal and the collective, exploring the very different obstacles that these inspirational women have overcome to get an education. Sparked in 2009 by a report about female illiteracy in Arab countries, Laura Boushnak’s ongoing documentary project I Read I Write has taken her on a profound journey through six countries and into the daily lives of countless women.
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