BEIRUT: Dressed in an old straw hat and navy suspenders, Abo Tawila pedals around a southern district of Beirut. A rare sight in modern-day Lebanon, the young barber-on-a-bike is looking for his next customer.
Everything he needs for a trim on the pavement is in a handmade trunk attached to the back of his pushbike: scissors, combs, electric razors and brushes.
“It’s a beautiful idea because it’s a really old one,” says the dapper 18-year-old as he makes his way through the buzzing district of Burj Al-Barajneh.
His real name is Mohammad Khaled Jahjah, but he prefers the name Abo Tawila — “the Tall One” in Arabic.
“People like this, and I love everything old. If I ever have the chance to open a barbershop, it’ll be a vintage one,” he says.
Mobile barbers were once ubiquitous in Beirut, but regular salons have since become more popular.
Abo Tawila works in both, spending most of his day in a barbershop before hitting the tarmac on his bike.
Some stop him for a haircut, but others hail him down to catch up or introduce themselves.
“I used to love watching the barber near my parent’s house. I’d come back from school, drop off my backpack, and go to his shop,” Abo Tawila says.
“He told me to come to the salon after school if I like this job. But I decided to leave school altogether to work with him. He taught me the trade and introduced people to me.”
The handsome hairdresser has become something of a celebrity in southern Beirut. He is slender, stylishly dressed, and has a sharp wit.
“I’m so happy he’s here,” says Abo Saeed, one of his favorite curbside customers.
“He’s talented and always available. When I have some time, I call him and he comes immediately, so I never have to leave work to go to the barber,” he tells AFP.
“On top of all of that, he reminds us of the barbers of the old days.”
Abo Tawila wakes up at 9:00am every day, puts together an outfit and goes down to the coffee shop near his house before beginning his day at the salon.
In his free time or when his shift is done, he heads out on his bike to find customers, grooming between five and 30 people a day.
“The situation changes depending on the day,” he says.
“There’s not much work now during Ramadan, because people are waiting for Eid,” the feast which marks the end of the Islamic fasting month and triggers a flurry of trade.
“Before Eid, we have three days where we don’t sleep from all the customers coming in,” he says.
While he dreams of opening his own shop, Abo Tawila insists he’ll stay loyal to his bike.
“If I open a salon, I’ll still keep it, because that’s what got me here,” he says.
Beirut’s dapper barber-on-a-bike offers curbside cuts
Beirut’s dapper barber-on-a-bike offers curbside cuts
Arts festival’s decision to exclude Palestinian author spurs boycott
- A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival
SYDENY: A top Australian arts festival has seen the withdrawal of dozens of writers in a backlash against its decision to bar an Australian Palestinian author after the Bondi Beach mass shooting, as moves to curb antisemitism spur free speech concerns.
The shooting which killed 15 people at a Jewish Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Dec. 14 sparked nationwide calls to tackle antisemitism. Police say the alleged gunmen were inspired by Daesh.
The Adelaide Festival board said last Thursday it would disinvite Randa Abdel-Fattah from February’s Writers Week in the state of South Australia because “it would not be culturally sensitive to continue to program her at this unprecedented time so soon after Bondi.”
FASTFACTS
• Abdel-Fattah responded, saying it was ‘a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship.’
• Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
A Macquarie University academic who researches Islamophobia and Palestine, Abdel-Fattah responded saying it was “a blatant and shameless act of anti-Palestinian racism and censorship,” with her lawyers issuing a letter to the festival.
Around 50 authors have since withdrawn from the festival in protest, leaving it in doubt, local media reported.
Among the boycotting authors, Kathy Lette wrote on social media the decision to bar Abdel-Fattah “sends a divisive and plainly discriminatory message that platforming Australian Palestinians is ‘culturally insensitive.'”
The Adelaide Festival said in a statement on Monday that three board members and the chairperson had resigned. The festival’s executive director, Julian Hobba, said the arts body was “navigating a complex moment.”
a complex and unprecedented moment” after the “significant community response” to the board decision.
In the days after the Bondi Beach attack, Jewish community groups and the Israeli government criticized Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for failing to act on a rise in antisemitic attacks and criticized protest marches against Israel’s war in Gaza held since 2023.
Albanese said last week a Royal Commission will consider the events of the shooting as well as antisemitism and social cohesion in Australia. Albanese said on Monday he would recall parliament next week to pass tougher hate speech laws.
On Monday, New South Wales state premier Chris Minns announced new rules that would allow local councils to cut off power and water to illegally operating prayer halls.
Minns said the new rules were prompted by the difficulty in closing a prayer hall in Sydney linked to a cleric found by a court to have made statements intimidating Jewish Australians.
The mayor of the western Sydney suburb of Fairfield said the rules were ill-considered and councils should not be responsible for determining hate speech.
“Freedom of speech is something that should always be allowed, as long as it is done in a peaceful way,” Mayor Frank Carbone told Reuters.
