News from Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli is often dominated by stories of underdevelopment, sectarianism and extremism. Young people living in Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tabbaneh—two areas often in direct conflict—have seen the effects firsthand when family members adopted radical ideologies while neighbors joined militant groups fighting in Syria. Salim, 17, said these influences in his neighborhood made normal childhood activities impossible. "When Daesh [ISIS] came into our neighborhood, our life was finished. It was done. I stopped going to the neighborhood, I stopped going to the streets.”
Extremism is not an isolated phenomenon -- it’s fueled by every day, structural violence that’s not limited to conflict zones. This ongoing project is about coming of age on the periphery of civil war and how young people like Salim cope with these challenges.
