My specialty was to make a peasants' haircut, but they obliged me work till midnight often

This work is part of Mounira Al Solh’s drawing and embroidery series I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous (2011–17), which Al Solh started in 2011, shortlyafter the civil uprising in Syria and the subsequent civil war. The project documents deeply personal encounters an conversations between the artist and Syrian refugees as well as other Middle Easterners who were forcibly displaced, fleeing to Lebanon, Europe, the United States, and other parts of the world.

Embroideries in this series combine stories people shared with Al Solh about leaving home or finding a new home in a different country. This work’s title references the experience of a hairdresser. Al Solh invited a network of skilled and novice female weavers in Lebanon to help produce this work. Some of these women fled the war in Syria; others are Palestinian refugees who have been living in camps since the 1970s.