A video camera in hand and a war to tell: this is the daily life of Janna Jihad Ayyad, a ten-year-old girl who, instead of playing and dedicating herself to the pastimes that should be typical of her age, has been making videos for three years to document about social media the difficult daily reality of his land, Palestine.
Don't keep avocado like this: it's dangerous A video camera in your hand and a war to tell: this is the everyday life of Janna Jihad Ayyad, a girl of just ten who, instead of playing and devoting herself to the pastimes that should be typical of her age, for three years he has been making videos to document the difficult daily reality of his land on social media, the Palestine.
Janna is the youngest Palestinian reporter, and one of the youngest in the world, and is very popular on social networks: just think that her Facebook page has almost a hundred thousand likes and is populated with comments. Her dream is to be able to study journalism at Harvard, and then work for global broadcasters, such as CNN and Fox News, with the aim of giving people a voice about her, "changing the way the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is told ".
In fact, her videos, shot with her mother's iPhone in English and Arabic, want to show the harsh reality of a daily war: this is the show that Janna, who lives in Nabi Saleh, a small West Bank village in which clashes and violence are the order of the day, she has assisted since a very young age. A reality that made her grow up too quickly, tearing her early from childhood, play and lightheartedness.
Not surprisingly, according to what his mother Nawal Tamimi told in Al Jazera, his passion for video and reportage was born after a series of tragic episodes: first the death of a childhood friend, then of a cousin and, finally, of an uncle, all killed by Israeli army fire. Events that have deeply marked her and that have pushed her on the path of activism, leading her to take part in marches and protests against the occupation and expropriation of lands and to document the violence perpetrated against the Palestinian population.
In recent months, the fame achieved by her videos has led her to broaden her range of action and to travel often with her mother to film what is happening in other areas and cities of Palestine, always with the aim of giving a voice to her people. . Compared to an adult reporter, she Janna she tells her to have the enormous advantage of not being easily identifiable and recognizable and to be able to film more freely, without risking his camera being confiscated by the soldiers.
Her mother Nawal is proud of her and her work, but she is also worried about her future and her safety. On the other hand, Janna comes from a family with a very long history of activism behind her and an uncle of hers, Bilal Tamimi, is a photographer who has been documenting the suffering of the people of Nabi Saleh for years.
Looking at Janna's works and touching her talent in narrating and documenting, one runs the risk of forgetting that a little girl made them. And this is, perhaps, the aspect that should make us reflect most, because every child should have the sacrosanct right to live his childhood with fullness and carefree and never be forced to witness the horrors of a war.
Lisa Vagnozzi
Photo Credits: Janna jihad
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