Marina Jaber, the woman who defies Arab bans. And she only rides a bicycle (photo)

REVOLUTION ON A BICYCLE

The one of Marina Jaber, 26 years old, painter, is a revolutionary in bicycleA gesture that, by itself, displaces the laws of stupidity, oppression, and war. It is the symbol of civil disobedience of a very brave woman, who decided not to waste anything of his life. And to challenge the obtuse closures of the Arab and Muslim world, where the womens she is often considered an inferior human being compared to man, with a real provocation: riding a bicycle, which is prohibited for women in countries like Iraq and IranSo much so that, according to the Iranian ayatollahs, a woman who uses a bicycle to get around is actually straying into the darkness of corruption and even prostitution.

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MARINA JABER

Jaber, here is the revolutionary gesture, he doesn't care about these constraints, and rides his bike through the streets of Baghdad, as if he were in any city in the Western world. He goes shopping, visits some friends, comes and goes from his office. All in bicycle. So one lap at a time, one pedal stroke after another, she began, and never stopped, to do what no woman in her city dared to do. And to think that, as Dina al-Shibeeb tells on Al Arabiya, to continue cycling she also had to go against her family, a traditionalist like many others. The use of two wheels, in these countries, in fact, is admitted up to the age of 12: from that moment on it is strictly prohibited because there is the so-called “saddle taboo”, which according to an old belief could even take away virginity.

PEDAL AGAINST PREJUDICES

His revolution has begun gradually. At first he started cycling in the more “modern” neighborhoods, such as Mansour e Abu Nuwas, documenting his “enterprise” with some photos on social media, accompanied by an Arabic slogan: "I am society." In the following weeks, against all expectations, her Instagram profile exploded with followers, reaching 30. "We paint ourselves as victims of society, but we ourselves accept what is imposed on us," Marina said in a recent interview. "So what is society? I am society.". In this way, with a seemingly banal gesture she managed to overturn theunnecessary sense of victimhood which often crosses different social strata around the world. This twenty-six-year-old, in fact, is convinced that the rebellion starts with her because she is the first to censor herself. Her revolution obviously doesn't have an easy life: in the most traditional neighborhoods, like Shora, they push her down, they deflate her tires, they offend her. But she doesn't get discouraged and continues pedaling..

The photos are taken from the Facebook page of Marina Jaber

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