{"id":1940,"date":"2025-07-26T08:36:34","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/26\/lebanese-shia-families-displaced-by-war-now-trapped-by-identity\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T08:36:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T08:36:34","slug":"lebanese-shia-families-displaced-by-war-now-trapped-by-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/07\/26\/lebanese-shia-families-displaced-by-war-now-trapped-by-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese Shia families displaced by war now trapped by identity"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon \u2013 <\/strong>Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March.<\/p>\n

They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel\u2019s attacks on Lebanon, and it felt good to have their own place.<\/p>\n

In their barely furnished living room in Laylake, Dahiyeh, with only two armchairs and a shisha pipe between them, the walls make clear where the family stands.<\/p>\n

A framed photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr\u2019s portrait of Fatima\u2019s 21-year-old nephew who was killed in an Israeli air strike in Jnoub in October.<\/p>\n

In the rubble, scraps of home<\/h2>\n

When the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its support for Palestine and escalated tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border for about a year until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.<\/p>\n

The suburbs of Dahiyeh have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli strikes as it is widely recognised as a Hezbollah stronghold.<\/p>\n

The family\u2019s previous home in Dahiyeh\u2019s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute walk from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in October.<\/p>\n

Yet Fatima was warm and hopeful in early June, her hazel eyes still smiling from below her hijab while recounting the pain of loss, displacement and hardship.<\/p>\n

Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, using her hands as if she were on stage.<\/p>\n

Like many Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for lunch while chatting about what it was like to feel under attack in Dahiyeh and whether that changed her relationship with her neighbourhood.<\/p>\n

After her family\u2019s home was destroyed and they fled to Aida\u2019s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage two wardrobes and a bed from the rubble along with other scraps from their lives there.<\/p>\n

Proud of that small victory, Fatima flung open the bedroom doors to show off the two wardrobes restored to the point where it would be hard to guess they had been in a bombing. The rescued bed is used by one of her sons after getting new slats and a new lease on life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the most important pieces of furniture in the house,\u201d she said, gently running her hand over one of the damaged surfaces.<\/p>\n

\"Fatima
Fatima Kandeel stands in front of a salvaged wardrobe, holding a bag of items her sons salvaged from the rubble of their home in Hay el-Selom, which Israel destroyed. She pulls out a stuffed toy that her son Hassan used to play with [Joao Sousa\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re historical [because they survived]. I was so happy we got them back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hassan and Hussein found more in the rubble of their home: a stuffed toy that Hassan used to play with and a few of the books from their mother\u2019s library.<\/p>\n

As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed toy in her hands, smiling and looking at it. Hussein was quietly observing his mother as she shared her thoughts.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe used to sleep with it beside him every night,\u201d Fatima recalled. \u201cI couldn\u2019t save much from their childhood after my divorce, but I kept this, and now it survived the war too.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her bedroom, a small table holds a stack of books about history, religion and culture \u2013 a fragment of what she once owned.<\/p>\n

Scars, visible and invisible<\/h2>\n

From the living room balcony, the scars of war are visible. The top floors of a neighbouring building have been destroyed, the lower floors still standing \u2013 a daily reminder of what was lost.<\/p>\n

Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh dear and is determined to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the people here,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone is kind. \u2026 Dahiyeh is home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hussein agreed that he feels most at home in Dahiyeh with its strong sense of community and friends and neighbours all around.<\/p>\n

During the war, he struggled emotionally, constantly stressed and getting into fights. He has seen two therapists but hasn\u2019t felt much improvement.<\/p>\n

Unlike his mother, Hussein is open to the idea of leaving Dahiyeh, but he pointed out practicalities \u2013 rents and the overall cost of living outside Dahiyeh are much higher if they could find a place to rent.<\/p>\n

And, he said, they could face sectarian discrimination if they relocate.<\/p>\n

The family had to leave Dahiyeh briefly during Israel\u2019s war on Lebanon and sought shelter in the nearby coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima still carries a painful memory from that time.<\/p>\n

A Jnah grocery store owner snidely remarked: \u201cLook at those trashy Shia people,\u201d as he looked at newly arrived families dressed in the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.<\/p>\n

The comment left a scar, and she refuses to leave Dahiyeh again.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf war comes again, what do you teach the next generation?\u201d she asked. \u201cThat it\u2019s OK to give up your home? Or that you stand your ground?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A
A street in Hay El Selom is decorated with posters of Hezbollah martyrs, including late leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Fatima and her sons lived there until their home was destroyed by Israel [Jo\u00e3o Sousa\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018If it were just me, I\u2019d stay\u2019<\/h2>\n

While Fatima has chosen to stay in Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.<\/p>\n

Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their four children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a university student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, both in school.<\/p>\n

All the children still share a single bedroom in their modest but light and joyful home.<\/p>\n

The living room was full of laughter as Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing around chocolate and juice while cousins chatted in the background.<\/p>\n

There was teasing as they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.<\/p>\n

Dahiyeh has never been entirely safe. Its history has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a cycle, Iman said \u2013 another war, another wave of fear and displacement. During Israel\u2019s most recent war on Lebanon, the family fled multiple times.<\/p>\n

They first went to Kayfoun village in the Mount Lebanon governorate in late September, but tensions there were high, and a local man spread rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.<\/p>\n

They left Kayfoun after a week and fled to Tripoli in the north, where life was quieter and the presence of nearby relatives offered some comfort, but mistrust lingered.<\/p>\n

Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her as \u201cresistance-aligned\u201d to people who blamed Hezbollah for Israel\u2019s attacks on Lebanon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all became introverts,\u201d Hassan recalled. \u201cWe stayed home most of the time, but we had relatives nearby and met some good friends. We\u2019d sit together, play cards. It helped.\u201d<\/p>\n

In early October, they followed friends to Iraq\u2019s capital, Baghdad, where they were welcomed warmly \u2013 more warmly, they said, than in parts of Lebanon.<\/p>\n

After the ceasefire, they returned. \u201cThere\u2019s no place better than our country,\u201d Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not feel safe to her any more despite her deep ties to the neighbourhood, so she is searching for a new home \u2013 anywhere that\u2019s safer.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it were just me, I\u2019d stay,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I have kids. I have to protect them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018They don\u2019t rent to Shia families\u2019<\/h2>\n

Iman\u2019s son Hassan recalls the first time Israel bombed near their apartment \u2013 on April 1 in breach of the November ceasefire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just wanted out,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t care where we go. Just somewhere that isn\u2019t a target.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Iman
Iman Kandeel in her living room. From left: Her son Hassan, the author, Iman, Iman\u2019s daughter Mariam, Iman\u2019s nephew Hassan and Fatima\u2019s son Hussein, in Hadath, Beirut, a home they are contemplating leaving [Joao Sousa\/Al Jazeera]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But finding a new place to rent is far from simple.<\/p>\n

They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is close to Dahiyeh but not part of it, making it relatively safer. And it would be closer to Iman\u2019s sister Mariam, who lives there.<\/p>\n

But Iman said: \u201cIn Hazmieh, most of them don\u2019t rent to Shia families, or they would double the price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the mounting fear, the family does not want to leave Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a job offer abroad. They\u2019re exhausted, they said, but not ready to abandon their country.<\/p>\n

Even in the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not want to leave Dahiyeh. He had to work on convincing them to go first to Kayfoun, then eventually Iraq.<\/p>\n

It was the same after the ceasefire with long discussions about whether to leave, and it was his mother\u2019s fear for her children that made her eventually agree.<\/p>\n

But more than a month after they spoke to Al Jazeera in early June, they\u2019re still searching for a place that will take them and that they can afford.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon \u2013 Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March. They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel\u2019s attacks on … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}