Her mother said no to a phone. Then came the Gaza genocide

Until recently, her daughter accepted the rule: no personal phone before finishing secondary school, no social media. If Eman needed WhatsApp for school, YouTube for homework, or to speak to friends during the COVID pandemic, she borrowed her mother's device. Everything passed through Beirut first before it reached Eman.The arrangement was not born of blind obedience. Eman describes herself as stubborn, and arguments over phones, curfews and going out were hardly uncommon. But, as her parents' only daughter, she also trusted that the limits they set came from a desire to protect her rather than control her.Beirut's rules were strict, but they were far from unusual. In Gaza, relatively few teenagers aged below 16 own smartphones, and even among wealthier families, whether a child has a phone often depends as much on parental approval as financial means. In Eman's class, only a handful of girls had phones of their own. Most borrowed a parent's device, and owning one before finishing school was considered a matter of luck rather than expectation.Eman wanted one all the same. Her close friend, Hanaa, had her own phone throughout their school years, and Eman remembers pleading with her ...