Gaza comic is standing up for her dream of making it big in comedy

Reham al-Kahlout defies neighbourhood gossips, online trolls and the occasional insult from strangers for a handful of laughs and a powerful dream.

The 19-year-old hails from the isolated and increasingly conservative Gaza Strip, and hopes to become the first woman from her hometown to make it big in comedy.

“I believe that I have to break that barrier, I have to make it through,” she says with a grin. “Everyone wants to know why, but I say ‘why do you ask me that?’ – I have to keep going.”

Life in Gaza is difficult even for those young people who haven’t decided to defy convention and chase their dream. The territory is in the grip of water and electricity shortages, and a lengthy blockade has crippled the economy, with nearly two-thirds of young men and women out of work.

For now, Kahlout appears in low-budget YouTube skits produced by a local comedy troupe. The men who appear in them are stars in Gaza, but for her, fame is more complicated. “The feedback is more negative than positive, I have to say. The men get totally the opposite response.”

The critics who hunt her out on YouTube or in the streets are not annoyed by bad jokes or bad acting – just her temerity in appearing on screen, often with her hair uncovered, in a place where local female actors are vanishingly rare and most women wear the hijab.

“Mostly what depresses me are the comments on YouTube. They are all negative. ‘Why is there a girl, take her out, she is not doing well’, things like that. Very rarely does anyone say ‘Well done, congratulations’.”

Her acting dreams began like so many other children’s, trying to recreate her favourite television and movie scenes in front of a mirror at home, or make her family laugh.

Her parents, who back her in the face of criticism from family, friends and neighbours, say she was always different from her five sisters: strong-willed, more boisterous and noisy. “Comedy’s in my personality, I always liked to joke around with my family,” she says.

But she knew that if she was going to make comedy a career she would have to do it alone. There are no acting classes in Gaza and going elsewhere has been an impossible dream because of severe travel restrictions and local cultural objections to her travelling as a single young woman.

The Gaza Strip, just 365 sq km of land on the shores of the Mediterranean, is shut off by Israeli walls and patrol boats on three sides, with special permits needed to leave, and a frequently closed Egyptian border on the fourth.

The physical isolation has cut Gaza off culturally and artistically, Kahlout says. “I wanted to study art and acting. I wanted to travel because we don’t have those [courses] here, but it was impossible because of the situation, and being a woman.”

She seized her chance when she spotted one of her sister’s classmates in a YouTube video, asked for an introduction and demanded a role. “I joined them to do a sketch and I loved it,” she says. She has never looked back.

The skits are made on a shoestring, with little time for rehearsal: the troupe run through their lines a couple of times on the day of the shoot. All the other female parts are usually played by men, both for comic effect and because of the shortage of women.

Kahlout and her family were overwhelmed at first by the ferocity of the attacks her small roles provoked, and for a while she stopped acting. But she realised she missed it too much to stay away. “In the end I thought: this is my dream. Why should I stop, why should I listen to other people?”

As honest as she is brave, Kahlout has few illusions about the difficulty of achieving her dreams, and spends much of her time studying for a law degree – a plan B if the silver screen doesn’t work out.

“The acting environment and culture is very limited here. I act with the group but I cannot say that I am fully an actor. If I couldn’t make it outside of Gaza, at least I will have a degree.”

Still she has local role models, even if none of them is a woman. A fellow Gazan, Mohammed Assaf, defied extraordinary odds to win the 2013 Arab Idol talent show and become a regional superstar.

For now, she has pinned her hopes on finding her way to Cairo, the regional hub for film and television, where an older sister has promised her a home.

“I think my life will really start then,” she says, set on becoming a role model as well as a star.

“My wish actually is for women and girls able to do whatever they want without pressure from society. Because of this I am determined to keep going, not let them put me off.”