AMMAN — A new shop in Jabal Al-Lweibdeh welcomed in customers for
the first time on Friday. As cold temperatures prevail across the Kingdom, the
fashion boutique’s offerings — stylish sweaters and scarves—will help to keep
the people of the hilltop community and its visitors warm.
اضافة اعلان
But behind the cheery shop window displaying brightly
colored knitwear and neat rows of soft fabric apparel lies a story of loss and
pain —and of a bereaved mother’s courage to keep on.
Abeer Rasheed, 37, is the mother of three children: Mohammad, Ameera, and Malak. Sometimes, as she works in her new establishment, Abeer said she could almost hear the voices of her children.
But Rasheed’s children are no longer with her. On September
13 in Lweibdeh, a four-story residential
building collapsed, trapping several
people under tonnes of concrete.
Rescue teams worked round-the-clock for 84 hours in response
to the event, with crews shifting heaps of rubble to unearth the injured and
victims of the collapse. Sadly for Rasheed, her children were among the 14
victims who lost their lives in the
tragedy.
A fitting titleTo honor the mother and her three children, people in the
community began to call Rasheed Khansa Lweibdeh or "the Khansa of
Lweibdeh”, a reference to a powerful poetess of early Islamic times.
Al-Khansa, a seventh-century tribeswoman living
in the Arabian Peninsula, was also a woman acquainted
with loss. She began composing elegiac poetry in honor of her two brothers who
were killed in tribal skirmishes before the birth of Islam.
Later, as Islam began to spread, the poetess converted, and eventually lost four of her six children in the Battle of Qadisiyah during the Muslim conquest of Persia in 636 AD. Her short, poignant elegies for the dead garnered her great acclaim.
To honor the mother and her three children, people in the community began to call Rasheed Khansa Lweibdeh or "the Khansa of Lweibdeh ”, a reference to a powerful poetess of early Islamic times.
The title was fitting for Rasheed as a person already familiar with great loss — a year and a half before the Lweibdeh tragedy, her husband, 47, was diagnosed with cancer and died suddenly.
Rasheed and her children had discussed opening a shop after
her husband passed away. “My 16-year-old son Mohammad used to say to me, ‘Mama,
you can open an online store that will ease your financial burdens,’” she said.
So, with the
help of social media activists who spread calls
for support, Rasheed began to work on realizing her son’s dream in a
brick-and-mortar shop, which also came to be known as “Khansa Lweibdeh”.
Today, the storefront is located only a short distance from
the location of the building collapse.
“The location of the shop was a source of anxiety for me, as
(those helping me open the store)wanted it to be in the Lweibdeh area,” Rasheed
explained. “But eventually I realized that the pain inside me would not go away,
even if I moved away.”
‘A strong, patient mother’“Many people have supported me in an unbelievable way,” the
shop owner said. She explained that community members used to bring her food as
she prepared to open her business.
“Some of them used to stay by my side for long hours,” she
said, adding that this type of solidarity “is not new to the Jordanian people,
especially the people of Lweibdeh”.
“Eventually I realized that the pain inside me would not go away, even if I moved away.”
Ali Sarsour, a social activist who lives in the
Lweibdeh area, said that Rasheed is “an example of a strong, patient mother”.
“She used to prepare and sell Kunafa in the bazaars, and she
would deliver students to schools in order to support her children,” he
recalled. “Her life before the tragedy was very difficult, but today it is even
more difficult and complicated, as the feelings of pain and hope conflict.”
From time to time, Sarsour has seen the mother stop at the
site of the building collapse where her
former home once stood, “remembering
her days with her children.”
Currently, Rasheed lives with her mother in the Qweismeh
area.
“I have no choice but to face life and continue,” she said. “I
only think about the present moment.”
For Rasheed, the opening of the new shop comes with mixed
feelings. While she is thankful to honor her children by realizing their shared
dream, she misses their presence. “On my first day in the shop,” she said on
Friday, “I feel that my sons Malak, Ameera, and Mohammad are around me, working
with me.”
“I can almost hear their breath.”
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