Najat Saliba: ‘The Beirut explosion is a crime like no other’

My dad was a banana farmer, and so all of our weekends and days off were spent helping him, or just spending time on the banana plantations and the citrus plantations. We also had land by the sea, so we always sat on the sand contemplating and really enjoying nature. There were six kids, I was the eldest daughter.

Unfortunately, when I was 14 the civil war broke out in Lebanon and we had to leave our home – not once, not twice, but four times. We would make it home and then be forced to leave again. That lasted until I was 24. It made me a totally different person, appreciating life and appreciating all the things that you usually take for granted. You realise it can all be stripped away from you.

I wanted to be a teacher all my life, but never thought I would be a researcher at a university. Honestly, I wouldn’t dare to dream that big because I was a girl, and my dad was not at the beginning supportive of women going to school and getting a higher education. And so, the farthest I could go with my dream was to become a schoolteacher.