Human. Or am I not in your eyes? My insides glisten like red pearls, revealed only to those dear to me. My layers are mine, part of nature, so why does it offend you? Why are we deemed less based purely on geographic luck. Our stories reduced to numbers, our hearts depicted as stone. I feel the world around me as much as any other, the sun in my eyes, the water on my skin. I float wandering aimlessly hoping the waves would treat me gently. The world shines ever so brightly around me, I chase sunsets and feel light on my fingertips. It is not as black and white as you paint it. Feel my essence, the one they try so hard to hide, see our stories, the ones they undoubtedly undermine.
This story, by photographer dJullanare Akkari, is part of the Untold Sham visual storytelling project, developed through a workshop with Marsah Tripoli and instructor Jihad Jneid.
