BURJ EL-BARAJNEH, Lebanon — Nassar al-Tanji is sitting at the bar at Jafra cafe talking to friends. He is a 20-year-old Palestinian refugee originally from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria. He became a refugee twice in 2011 when he fled his war-torn home in Syria. For Tanji, Jafra cafe is a unique place in the Burj el-Barajneh camp in Beirut, where he can meet with other men and women, have discussions and not be harassed, breaking the existing gender barriers in the camp. Here, he has a space where he can interact with others and not be frowned upon by onlookers.
Founded in April 2015 by Palestinian musician Ashraf el-Chouli, who invested his life savings to open it, Jafra is the first mixed meeting place in the camp. Here, young men and women can go to read in its small library, listen to music or meet visiting guests from outside the camp, many of them musicians, including Palestinian singer and international star Mohammed Assaf who sang and played music with Chouli at Jafra for an evening.