Olivia Arthur Lighty and her sister play fight on the roof. Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. 2010.
“I met Lighty when I was working in Saudi Arabia. She was different from most of the girls I had met, a bit wilder. She w
(...) ould take me to parties, hang out with men and just generally push the boundaries of the restrictive society in which she lived. In her room, in her family's small apartment, she slept in a tent to create a feeling of adventure for herself. When I came back on another trip, they had moved to a house farther out of the city. She was excited to show me the roof, and we went upstairs to smoke cigarettes and look at the neighborhood in the dark. The roof was like a breath of openness in her otherwise very claustrophobic world. One of her sisters joined us and, together, they began acting out little scenes, mock rituals with sparklers and play fighting. It was a spectacle for the neighbors, who wouldn't actually see because they were either asleep or deep inside their houses with the curtains drawn.”
– Olivia Arthur © Olivia Arthur | Magnum Photos