In Avignon, “When I Saw the Sea,” the peaceful and political work of Ali Chahrour

Tackling a massive political issue like the kafala system, an abusive system that ties a worker's residence permit to their contract with their employer, head-on in Lebanon, is a perilous undertaking. This is the challenge taken up by Lebanese choreographer Ali Chahrour with his new piece, When I Saw the Sea . Presented at FabricA in Avignon from July 5 to 8, he has succeeded not only in alarming the public about a terrifying situation but also in creating a peaceful work that reflects his own stand against barbarity.

When I Saw the Sea features three women. Domestic workers from Africa, they met Ali Chahrour through an NGO. They testified, along with others, about their atrocious survival conditions, in the homes of bosses who enslave them. Emerging from the darkness of the stage, they carry their stories and simply state what they have experienced, adding up the violence and humiliation. One of them, an orphan, was abandoned in the street by her mother, a domestic worker, raped by her boss, and evokes the abuse to which cleaning women are subjected: burned with boiling oil, forced into prostitution... Another recounts how her hair was cut, forced to wash in front of "Madame" , and to sign a paper forbidding her from making love...

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