BEIRUT—Marwan Hamadeh, a 27-year-old Lebanese man, has a secret life. Five days a week, he cleans offices around Beirut. “From my family, nobody knows,” said Hamadeh (who has asked to use a pseudonym) in March. “The idea wouldn’t sit well with them.”
It was out of desperation that Hamadeh turned to cleaning. Once a mobile phone repairman, Hamadeh lost his job in Lebanon’s jaw-dropping economic crisis, which erupted in October 2019 and has since slashed the Lebanese lira’s value by 90 percent. Last August, laden with debt and financially responsible for his parents, Hamadeh needed to find other work. His predicament is common among Lebanese; his response is anything but.
