Circus Cake

circus

Saghar’s father used to take his family to the circus in Beirut. But he remembers there weren’t any male performers, only a couple of female clowns. Now, the circus takes place just outside their village and his daughter is part of the show. She even performs in the circus’s barn, spinning ribbons from two metal bars. But it isn’t her show. “There’s a guy,” she says, pointing to a performer wearing a star on his chest. “He does the music.”

Watch Saghar’s circus performance:

There is only one female circus performer in Jordan’s circus fraternity. Her name is Baraka Abbas. The 28-year-old is the only female on the circus team in the kingdom. Abbas recalls that when she was a little girl, she followed the circus train with her mother, aunt and cousins in Lebanon. But now, she has to show women that they can also join the circus. “My dream is to show that women can do anything,” she says, smiling.

“A male circus trainer once said, ‘I could never do that.’ But I wanted to show him that I could. And look how far I’ve gotten.”

Abbas began practicing circus in the seventh grade, taking classes and practicing the basics. “I grew up in a village,” she says. “When I saw that the circus was coming to town, I just knew it was for me. And I told my dad. He laughed.” But the father-daughter duo went to the circus, and Abbas was taken on the hunt. She dressed up in boyish clothes and climbed to the top of the car before being discovered and let in.