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Yemeni expats find sisterhood, escapism on Beirut roller derby track

Despite bruises and broken ankles, a dozen young women from different countries are determined to keep up the first roller derby club in Beirut.
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Memories of her country ravaged by civil war, cholera and famine, and constant worries over her family cast a dark shadow over Hadeel al-Hubaishi’s life as a student in Beirut. She left her native Sanaa, the Yemeni capital, to study at the American University of Beirut on a Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) scholarship in 2014. Little did she know that a civil war would break out in her country shortly after her departure, making it difficult to visit her family.

Then, at the beginning of 2015, her MEPI friend Nada Ben Jemaa — and Elisabeth Wolffhechel, a Danish humanitarian worker — made her an offer that would first become a distraction and then a passion: to help them establish the first roller derby club in the city.

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