I met Mira, an effervescent young woman with a waterfall of dark, curly hair and a mile-wide smile when I visited Palestine in 2023. She was working at the Arab Evangelical Episcopal School teaching music. Mira shared her story with me and how her passion for music started.

From a young age, she dreamed of becoming a singer and musician for children. Growing up in Abu Dis, a town near Jerusalem, Mira had limited opportunities to pursue her dream until she finished high school. Then Mira enrolled in a local college to study music, but she still felt that she needed more to achieve her goal. So, she kept searching for a better program and found Dar al-Kalima University.

At Dar al-Kalima, Mira found our vibrant community of like-minded artists, actors, musicians, and singers. For the next two years, she learned everything she could about music and how to teach it to children. She obtained her diploma and became a music teacher for children in grades 1-6 at the Arab Evangelical Episcopal School, where our paths crossed.

Mira shared that her love of music extends beyond the classroom. Her husband is also a musician, and they often perform together as a duo. They created a group called Story and Song in 2018. In fact, Mira is a famous singer in Palestine. Something I wouldn’t have known about this very humble young lady if I had not heard her on the radio in a cafe where Rev. Dr. Mitri Raheb and I were chatting during my visit.

Mira's husband shares her passion for music education. He writes the songs that she sings, which they use to help children who have suffered from trauma, allowing them to find healing in the sounds created, something that is so needed especially now.

In 2016, Mira and her husband had the opportunity to come to the US, something most of our students never get to experience. While here, they went hiking, enjoying freedoms that they didn’t have back home. Mira has always dreamed of going to the beach with her husband and dog, Rafiki, and then visiting every city in Palestine, but she knew that the occupation made it impossible for that dream to become a reality.

The occupation has meant not just a loss of leisure activities, it’s also made it harder just to keep working. Lockdown was difficult for everyone around the world, but was especially arduous for Mira and so many Palestinains. During the six months of lockdown, she didn't work and didn't get paid. Every day, she climbed the wall to go to school and used someone else's birth certificate. Someone with a blue ID. Someone living in East Jerusalem. Someone has more freedom and more opportunities than she did as a green ID holder.

Mira feels trapped, like she’s in a prison in Palestine. Despite the challenges she’s facing, Mira continues to pursue her passion for music and inspire children, now including her 9 month-old daughter Salma. She’s incorporating everything she learned from Dar al-Kalima into her teachings and is using music to create a brighter future for those around her, despite her daily life now facing a genocide. I checked in with Mira a week ago and she shared, “Our daily life is normal, but we’re living like zombies without a soul. We’re just passing the time. Our hearts are broken.”