Laughing all the way to the West Bank: the blind Palestinian comedian tearing down barriers

Joke by joke, standup sensation Sherihan El Hadwa is challenging lazy stereotypes about victimhood

On a small stage in Tulkarm, a city in the north of the occupied West Bank, Sherihan El Hadwa emerges from the wings to a Palestinian pop song. Dancing and waving the long white cane she uses to navigate the world, the visually impaired comedian already has her audience laughing and clapping along to the music.

Hadwa did not have an obvious route into standup comedy, and the many difficulties of life as a disabled woman in the Palestinian territories are not a straightforwardly humorous topic.