A young Palestinian copes with workplace discrimination and mental health challenges whilst in lockdown

English transcript | نسخة عربية

Nationality: Palestinian
Occupation: Tutor
Date of interview: 3 September 2020
Language of interview: English

“Honestly, I feel like [if] one more thing happens, I'm going to collapse […] I'm on the verge of falling apart.”

Amal is a 25-year-old Palestinian woman who has been living in Kuwait with her family since 2004. The lockdown hit Amal’s family hard; she witnessed multiple mental health crises in her closest family members during the period, which heavily impacted her own stress and anxiety levels. Married for just over a year and a half at the time of our conversation, Amal had to learn how to navigate living with her husband 24/7 under the new restrictions and the intensities that brought along.

Then, her 23-year-old brother in the US suffered from terrifying hallucinations, tried to harm himself, and ran away from home. Fortunately, together with her 20-year-old brother who was with him in the US as well, they managed to get him help through a crisis management hotline and admit him to a mental health institution for a few weeks. He was diagnosed with a severe bipolar disorder. Amal is thankful her younger brother was there, as without him it would have been impossible to get help.

Meanwhile, the lockdown triggered episodes in her father in Kuwait, who was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. This happened during the lockdown, that coincided with Ramadan, during which curfew was lifted for just two hours every day, and only walking was allowed. Every day during that time, Amal would walk for up to an hour from her apartment in Salmiya, to her parents’ in Jabriya to check on them and to help calm them down as they would start blaming each other for what happened to their son. “It was hot. It was dusty. I was depressed. It was the worst time to be an adult.” She would tell her 13-year-old sister to block out their parents’ fights by locking the door and putting a pillow over her head.

As if her familial challenges weren’t traumatizing enough, Amal also faced discrimination at her workplace, with the company she’d worked at for nearly three years temporarily shutting down operations and telling her to consider herself on vacation... a vacation without pay. As a result, she could no longer contribute to household expenses and help her husband financially, which made her feel extremely guilty. To add insult to injury, she found out that some of her colleagues were receiving full salaries, despite the company being shut down. When the lockdown lifted and operations resumed, she was called back but on half pay. She resigned soon after, and was almost cheated out of getting her indemnity when the accountant gave her misleading information to save the company cash. Fortunately, another employee came to her aid and she was able to secure what she was owed.

Since Amal’s husband has a Canadian permanent residency, the couple is planning to relocate to Canada next year. Her mother and sister have already moved to the US, where her sister has been able to go for therapy, since it’s more affordable there. She’s saddened to be moving further away from her grandparents and extended family in Saudi, but she says, “[...] it's time to leave, hopefully to a place where you [will] be able to eventually get the passport and own a home, and have your rights.”

If there’s one thing Amal has learnt from this ordeal, it is the value of mental health. “Sometimes it's okay to not be the adult in the family [...] I learned to open up and speak to my husband and close friends and not let it eat me up inside. You never really know what's going to happen tomorrow. So I really just try to be in the moment.”

In the clip above, Amal tells us how she and her family dealt with the intense effects of the pandemic on their mental health.

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