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A life in flux for Lebanon’s Dom community

On the fringes of Lebanese society, the Dom suffer from extreme poverty and social marginalisation.

The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Thousands of members of the Lebanese and now Syrian Dom community live in the Hayy Al Gharbeh area. The families are increasingly desperate, many having experienced trauma, as well as children missing out on years of education. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
By Yesim Yaprak Yildiz and Celia Peterson
Published On 22 Dec 2016

The Dom community’s origins go back to India, from where they migrated to the Middle East and now reside in countries including Lebanon, Syria and Turkey.

On the fringes of Lebanese society, they suffer from extreme poverty and social marginalisation, with little access to health, education, formal employment and adequate housing. A third survive on less than a dollar a day.

Having led a nomadic life until the mid-to-late 20th century, the Dom are now largely sedentary – although, in Syria, this community is on the move again, fleeing a ruthless conflict with no end in sight. Many now live among other refugees, in informal tent settlements in Lebanon.

Their language, Domari, is quickly disappearing as they choose to converse with their children in Arabic. As their children become educated and their original nomadic lifestyle fades into the past, the Dom have found themselves in a state of flux.

The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Fadia Turkmani, originally from Syria, is married to Yacoub, a Lebanese Dom. They live in the Hayy Al Gharbeh area of Beirut with their six boys. 'The Dom don't think about tomorrow; we live, we think about what am I going to eat today, when am I going to have coffee today.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
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The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Yacoub Turkmani, a Lebanese national, is 38 and works as a part-time caretaker. He has never known a traditional nomadic lifestyle and has always lived in Lebanon: 'We work like any other community. We like to sit in nature, sit together and drink coffee. My family works, I work ... Thank God, we also have children and we are taking care of them, so we are a family. The community is changing. Now, there is education. Before there were no schools.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Mohamed, 16, has lived in the Hayy Al Gharbeh area for 10 years. His father works at a local ice cream shop and his mother is a housewife. Although Mohamed does not speak the Dom language, both his grandmother and mother speak Domari fluently. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Dom children play in the Hayy Al Gharbeh area of Beirut. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Khaled, 13, with his father Hasan sit in their tent in the Bekaa Valley. Hasan makes this traditional Dom instrument, the rababa, and sells them across Lebanon at markets. He gets $10 for each instrument, some of which are exported for sale. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Hasna looks through photos she brought with her from Syria in her tent in the Bekaa Valley. The photos are the only memories of her previous life, after their family home in Syria was bombed. 'In Syria, everything was good; we bought land, our kids went to school for free, we had a beautiful two-storey house. But we had to leave when the Syrian war broke out and our house was destroyed.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
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The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Khuloud, 23, stands in her family's tent in the Bekaa Valley, where the owner of the land allowed them to stay for free when he saw how they had cleaned and decorated the tent. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Sharifi, 85, had her hands and face tattooed when she was 10. The Dom used to be famous for it, but the new generation no longer practices this tradition. She speaks Domari and is now living in a tent settlement in the Bekaa Valley: 'We had everything in Syria; now we have nothing.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Family members pray together in the El Marj area of the Bekaa Valley. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Fayed, 39, sees changes happening in the community as children are educated. He hopes to have Dom representation in the government in the future, so the interests of the Dom will be heard: 'We are like everyone else, we have our culture. Before we used to marry and move around; now we are settled and things have changed.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Ali stands in the living room of his home in Jadra. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
A family spends time outside their home in Jadra. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Diala, left, and Khaldieh are seen outside of their family home. They do not attend school, as their family cannot afford the transportation. Dom children often face discrimination in school, accused of being dirty and of low morality. [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]
The Dom of Lebanon/ Please Do Not Use
Sobhi, 31, sits with a friend in his house in Jadra. Sobhi, a waiter in Beirut, says his four children sometimes experience discrimination at school, but he tells them to ignore it. 'I want people to know we are good people; we should not be immediately criticised as Dom.' [Celia Peterson/Al Jazeera]