Hasmik Basta Giyan

The morning of August 4, 2020, was another regular morning in the life of Hasmik Chabo (known as Yasmine); she went to work as usual, but she has a weird feeling inside.

Hasmik worked in a clothes shop in St. Nicolas in Achrafiye, and she was very busy on that day; she was looking forward to the evening to go back to her children and grandchildren.

However, a little after 6:00 PM, she heard a loud explosion, and as she walked out of the shop, a second explosion pushed her away from the shop that was reduced to the ground, and she was bleeding from her head and hip in the middle of the street. Hasmik thought it was a Tsunami that hit the area, and she was worried about the fate of her husband and children. She started screaming for help when the shop owner, covered with blood, came out to evacuate her on his motorcycle to the American University of Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC).

Hasmik has never witnessed something like this before; dead bodies in the streets, people screaming, rubble everywhere, and the smell of death filling the air in Beirut.

Hasmik was treated at AUBMC, and she found out that her hip injury will cause a semi-permanent disability. She will need consecutive surgeries to recover minimal day-to-day functions.

Hasmik is back in her house, but she will never forget the August 4 explosion that is engraved in her memory; a cowardly explosion, as she calls it, has changed her life and that of her family. She can’t work anymore, and she is unable to move on with her life; she feels like a 70-year-old, when she just turned 60.
Hasmik calls for mercy from a government disaffected by people’s hardships. She calls for justice for the oppressed.