Dateline meets the first all-women car racing team in the Middle East, as they swerve through the cities of the West Bank and break down cultural barriers.
Marah Zahalka has car racing in her blood.
“I noticed her talent the day she stole the car when she was 11 years old,” her father Khaled says. “It was clear that she is unique.”
For Marah, the realisation that engines, steering wheels and gear sticks would be a big part of her life came even earlier.
“I’ve always liked cars,” she tells director Amber Fares, in this week’s Dateline. “I’ve always liked watching them. I’ve always loved the sound of cars.”
But as a Palestinian living in the West Bank city of Jenin, her path to racing glory has involved one barrier after the other. For decades the city has been a centre of violent confrontations between Israeli and Palestinian nationalist groups. During and after the Second Intifada – a Palestinian uprising against Israel in the early 2000s – Jenin became known as the ‘suicide bomber capital’, due to their disturbing frequency.
Watch the full story from the SBS TV Dateline program.