Aliades
Even in the midst of darkness, in one of the harshest places on earth, slits of hope can open up that transform lives forever. In the Shatila refugee camp in Lebanon, light entered with Majdi. This Palestinian façade painter formed a girls’ basketball team to steer girls away from a dramatic fate that often begins with child marriage and ends in a spiral of abuse, drugs and honour killings.
Txell Feixas i Torras witnessed the first steps of the team and a decade after its creation she returns to the field to meet Majdi and the players. Through basketball, the coach wanted to save his daughter from a nearby abyss. We will see if Razan let himself be rescued by his father and we will also follow the life paths that his teammates have traced. All of them face the worst rival team: that of male violence.
If in Dones Valentes the journalist portrays individual feminist struggles, in this book she takes a step forward to show us how the new generations of women in the Middle East survive thanks to a network of complicity. The protagonists of this story have discovered that they can dream if someone explains to them that it is possible and that they can be the girls they want to be because, quite simply, they have the right to do so.
PRESS
«Feixas has the ability to find stories in the margins, hidden in those corners that we often prefer not to look at; she gathers them carefully so as not to alter their essence or the human factor that is at the centre of them and makes them shine with a journalism that does not admit paternalism. If the story is told through the eyes of journalist Txell Feixas, rigour and humanity are guaranteed.» Marta Orriols
«A must-read. A story of constructive rebellion against the multiple oppressions suffered by young girls in the refugee camp of Shatila (Lebanon). Simmered with the narrative art, care and sensitivity of Txell Feixas.» Oriol Andrés, videojournalist and documentary filmmaker
«A story in a feminine key, a story of self-improvement. Txell Feixas writes good literature, searching for the nuances of the reality that surrounds her. An important book.» Foster&Wallace Bookshop
«Txell Feixas once again does what she does so well: placing her human gaze on the silences that cry out for revolt. The girls of Chatila make of their challenge a necessary story of collective overcoming. By reading them, we want them to win the game. Another essential book by one of the best journalists we have.»
Marta Vives
