‘The Palestinian people just want freedom and understanding’

SHAHD Mahnavi was born in Jerusalem, the daughter of activist parents, including a father who worked as a politician, journalist, and poet.

“Because my father worked for Yasser Arafat, I was shielded and protected. It felt suffocating. But at the same time, as a Palestinian living in Jerusalem, you are constantly disguising who you are.”

Shahd believes she was fortunate to go to an International School from the age of ten. This international setting meant that she was learning along with students of all different faiths and persuasions.

“I realised how much we have in common. I went to church with Christians and in turn, they came to the Mosque. I became so openminded, but there was no equality outside the school gates. 

I felt harassed. Because my father was a public figure, because of his position, it was quite sensitive.

A trip to London when she was only 16 offered Shahd an exciting opportunity for her to live differently.

“I fell in love with the UK. It doesn’t matter who you are in the UK.”

New Beginning

Shahd spent the next two years trying to convince her dad to let her return to the UK. Eventually, he accepted her desire for a new life, and a life alone.

“It wasn’t easy. It’s not usual for a young Muslim girl to leave her family at the age of 19. I had a hard time, a lot of painful experiences after I arrived.

“I got robbed; I struggled with money. I was homesick, but home was also oppression. It broke and built me,” she said.

I kept going and going and going. I felt I was born for something.

That something turned out to be poetry, but it took the vivacious writer some time to get there. Her desire to write came during the pandemic when she found herself managing two businesses and two children in England.

“I felt a huge black fog descend. It was like I was about to shut down, so I spent a lot of time healing, reading, and writing. I realised I had to stop carrying so many problems on my shoulders. I realised I was carrying so much pain and trauma. I also realised I wasn’t fighting the fight I was meant to be fighting, as my father had. After a lot of reading and crying, I started to build myself back up.”

She has a great deal of material from that period of healing, and was delighted when Mich Maroney of Swerve Gallery and Project Space in West Cork invited her to Ireland for the writer’s residency.

Finding Her Purpose

“Now I know my passion. I’ve found it. I have written so much poetry from that healing. I am so happy to give something to the world for no gain. Anything I earn goes towards Palestine,” she said.

The poet’s recent residency in West Cork also made a beautiful kind of sense. Swerve is so named as a homage to Verve magazine.

Mich Maroney possesses a copy of Verve devoted to celebrating art and literature in the face of the barbarism of the Second World War. Mich Maroney sees a savage irony that her own literary magazine has launched at a time when the world is once again threatened by totalitarianism and war.

The Palestinian poet shares Swerve’s devotion to art and literature. She also believes in the power of education to create change.

“We must educate ourselves. We’re all the same. Like anyone else, the Palestinian people just want freedom and understanding,” she said.

It saddens her that she may never see her parents again as the authorities are unlikely to let her back.

Because I’m speaking out, I have a fear that they would put me in prison. I only speak about humanity, but still, I fear that. I last visited two years ago.

“But I also have happiness because I feel like I am giving something to the world, and to my people. I hope I can make a small change and I couldn’t do that from home.”

Shahd has also come home in another sense. She recalls writing from a young age, and how her English teacher recognised her potential. She also recalls watching her father performing his work.

“My father used his poetry to push back. I remember how he would stand on stage and perform. My father is still a very humble man, and he will always keep me grounded. I remember he said to me to ‘carry heavy stones with you’, so you never lose yourself.

“The more you educate yourself, the more you realise how little you know.”

Shahd’s recent poetry book White Shoes, My Story Without Boundaries, is available to order on www.lulu.com. All profits from the sale of this book will be donated to Medical Aid for Palestinians.

For more see https://shahdmahnavi.co.uk/