#lebanese feminist

[leftistfeminista]

Jana Nakhal is a Marxist feminist organizer, urban activist and member of the Lebanese Communist Party's central committee

Returning to Foucault as he uses the concept of the panopticon. The panopticon is socially reproduced through the transformation of the women/queer people among themselves into a watchtower for the other. Through which they observe the other’s body, its size and shape, the hair that covers it, and pressures her to get rid of it or trim it, in acceptance of the male gaze, and internalizing the latter in the way women/queer people approach their own bodies.

In this context, it is important to see that what needs to be changed, the bodies that must be “improved,” are deficient bodies, in which there is a birth defect which must be constantly concealed, and its appearance monitored in order to preserve its “femininity.” Thus, the “process” of femininity is a process that alienates women from their bodies and makes them feel defective, while incapacitating them. Specifically, those who do not have the economic capacity, time, or any of the luxury and privileges required for this process.

The absence of public practices of torture and violence towards individuals who do not submit to patriarchal values related to the body does not mean that they are free with their bodies and practices. In reality, they are forced to face punishment of another kind. The demeaning of our curly hair, the frowning looks that face us when hair covers parts of our bodies that should not be covered, is only one form of this punishment.

Under patriarchy, the body is public property—particularly the body of colonized communities, of the trans and queer people, and women. That is, it is the property of society, the latter having the power to determine what it looks like, to control it, to dominate it, and to reject it when the body decides not to follow its standards. Hair is personal, intimate, or public. Hair also has a political structure, not because we want it to be so, but because colonialism and patriarchy made it so.

[de-mykel]

Huguette Caland. White Space, 1984.

oil on linen

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad, Muriel or the Time of Return)—delphine seyrig was a magnetically compelling and radiant lebanese-born french actress, director, and activist, known for appearing in arthouse classics like alain resnais' enigmatic last year at marienbad and collaborating with avant-garde and feminist filmmakers

Ann-Margret (Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas)—While she started as a singer, the lovely and talented Ann-Margret also left her mark as an actress in Hollywood. She won a Golden Globe for her first role in Pocketful of Miracles and was nominated again for Bye Bye Birdie, and very nearly stole the show from Elvis Presley himself in Viva Las Vegas.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Delphine Seyrig propaganda:

Obviously she is very hot and talented, but she was also a filmmaker in her own right, making documentaries about the women's rights movement in France in the 1970s and choosing projects for their feminist subjects (Jeanne Dielmann for example).

MILF. Who said that

Ann-Margret:

She can sing! She can dance! She had excellent chemistry with Elvis! She reportedly survived a 22 foot fall off of a stage! The movies and old and problematic but I love her 1000%

[fairydrowning]

"After you, poetry will cease."

– A Peom By Nizar Qabbani, "Bilqis" (tr. from Arabic by Yasser Aman King Saud University, Saudi Arabia)

Nizar Qabbani was a Syrian poet and diplomat who was famous for his romantic, nationalist and feminist poetry. Balqis an Iraqi woman who was his second wife. On 15th December 1981, she died in a bomb blast in the Iraqi embassy in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War. Her death depressed him deeply, and he spent most of his life in Europe after her death. The poem was reportedly written the same day Balqis passed away.

[transrevolutionaries]

"Today there are some who will try to separate Aswat [queer feminist Palestinian movement] from the Palestinian struggle and only relate to you on the basis of a universal sexual identity. But those who support your self-determination will not forget that you are linguistically translating your culture, your lives and your self-identities and your struggle to make it easier for those of use who are not fluent in Arabic to understand. But that does not mean that identities like lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, transsexual, intersexual have one universal meaning in all places, for all peoples, for all cultures, or in all historical periods.

Colonialism and imperialism have always tried to foment conflicts in order to divide and conquer. In the case of Palestinians, as Helem [Lebanese LGBT group] concluded, “[T]he rights of gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders should not be placed in competition with the long struggle of the Palestinian people, including Palestinian LGBT people, for self-determination, for the right to return to their homes, and the struggle against apartheid and the occupation of their lands.”

Today we see how the imperialists—the U.S. to Israelis—use the experiences of women, of gays, of transgenders as pretexts for imperialist war. The white supremacist ideology replaces the colonial claim of “bringing civilization,” into imperialist claims that they are “bringing democracy.” But Washington and Tel Aviv have brought ruthless reactionary occupations to the Middle East.

Today the U.S. has made anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-woman rape and humiliation part of its science of torture and repression from the U.S. torture camp in imperialist-occupied Guantánamo, Cuba, to Abu Ghraib."

Leslie Feinberg on Pink-washing and rainbow imperialism in hir visit to occupied Palestine through ASWAT's invitation. 2007.

[womenofthefertilecrest]

Poet of the day : Leila Baalabaki 🇱🇧🌿

"In the beginning was the face–– I dove into a delightful dream. Suspended in grey space, I no longer tasted dust in my mouth. A drowsy frost settled on my fingertips and toes. No ground below me, no cement nor tiles; I became a cloud." - Opening of “I Attended the Birth of Dawn,” by Leila Baalabaki

Baalabaki was known for her revolt against authority and traditional values. Baalabakki was born 1936 in Beirut, Lebanon where, during her adolescence, she began to push against barriers and purued a higher education at Beirut Jesuit University. She studied literature as she began to work for the Lebanese Parliment, in this she realized the role the goverment has in the perception of women and detested the image of Arbian women portrayed by the West. In 1958 Baalabaki wrote her first novel , I Live, at just 22 years old. Balabakki illustrates an internal feminist experience that conflicts with external social culture. Baalabaki was later charged with "endangering public morality" and much of her work was burned or banned.

[the-intellectual-journal]

Leila and The Wolves: Revolutionary Feminism and the Importance of Third Cinema

Image by Cinema of Women Presents

Leila and the Wolves created in 1984 by Lebanese filmmaker Heiny Srour follows the story of a young woman named Leila. Leila lives in London and can travel through different points of Middle Eastern history through the collective memory of women a part of the 20th-century Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements. The film is framed through a radical and feminist lens and highlights the women central to the Palestinian liberation struggle, serving as a testimony to their revolutionary spirit.

Srour’s approach to the film's formal elements solidified her status as an innovative filmmaker — reflected through the film’s radical political commitments through challenging dominating structures of occupation and colonialism. The film reflects these commitments through Leila’s ability to travel through time and space. Leila’s power bridges the gap between the past and present, giving agency to the Arab women often erased in historical narratives. Srour employs Leila's ability to time travel offers a transformative approach to interconnecting various periods of a collective history — contributing to a richer and textured narrative.

At the beginning of the film, Leila is transported to the West Bank in the 1920s. While Leila is there, she witnesses a violent demonstration and the cruelty inflicted on the Palestinian people. She is shortly taken back to the present, and the brutal imagery remains etched in her memory. During a conversation with her partner, Leila questions why he exclusively selected photos of men in the exhibit showcasing the Palestinian struggle. 

He responds, claiming he doesn't recall any images featuring women and that they had no role in politics back then. This scene is juxtaposed moments later when Leila is transported back to the West Bank in the 1920s, and the viewer witnesses how the women resist colonial subjugation. The women are strategic in their resistance — flinging rocks and pouring boiling water at the unsuspecting colonial officers from the balcony. 

Film scholar Vivianne Saglier expands on this theme, “My argument navigates the tension between historical continuities and ruptures intrinsic to disenchantment by re-articulating the relationship between historical projects of decolonization and later decolonial feminist approaches, which materialize in Srour’s “post-Third-Worldist praxis”. 

Srour’s filmmaking style in Leila and the Wolves resonates with the principles of third cinema, which disrupts conventional American narratives. As mentioned by Saglier, “Srour’s cinema of liberation experiments with myth-based historiography to establish connections between distinct epistemic worlds across time, space, and gendered groups—what Lugones calls “world-travelling,” the realization and negotiation of the plurality of epistemic worlds that enrich the construction of collectivities” 

With this framework in mind, the spectator immerses themselves in the gendered collective memory of the Palestinian liberation struggle. These instances are witnessed through Leila, as she acts as the viewer's guide. The viewer can observe the women gathering to manufacture bullets out of old residue, strategically concealing weapons to bypass checkpoints, and taking up arms to resist the 1948 Deir-Yassin massacre. These acts of resistance reflect how Leila and the Wolves stand as a tribute to the revolutionary and feminist spirit of Arab women.

Leila’s ability to serve as a historical witness in combination with archive footage enables the viewer to tap into the collective memory and shared trauma of the Palestinian plight. The archive footage often shows the violence occurring on the front lines and the heartbreaking display of Palestinian refugee camps. 

While Srour's methodology enhances the depth and authenticity of the story, many Arab male filmmakers during Srour's time, often fell short in this respect. Srour comments on Arab men’s films such as Borhane Alaouie´’s Kafr Kassem (1968), Youssef Chahine’s Al-Asfour/The Sparrow (1972), or Tewfiq Saleh’s Al-Makhdu‘un/The Dupes (1973) often represented women in a one-dimensional perspective—typically relegating Palestinian women into symbolic representations that mirrored patriarchal narratives such as passive beings or the docile mother identity. 

Srour’s decision to integrate archive footage while displaying women’s political role in liberation struggles contrasts with this traditional narrative. This approach to storytelling not only adds a layer of historical context but underlines that the efforts and struggles of Arab women are not fictitious or symbolic representations but are grounded in historical authenticity. 

In doing so, the film paints a broader picture of the Palestinian liberation struggle and illustrates its feminist principles. In a world that often erases the contribution of women’s historical efforts, Leila and the Wolves is a groundbreaking form of media that commemorates the revolutionary commitments of women at the heart of the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Heiny Srour gives us more than just a story; she presents a lesson, a memory, and a call to not forget the sacrifices made by Arab women at the forefront of the Palestinian liberation movement. Although Leila and the Wolves was released nearly 40 years ago, the depiction shown in the film reflects the material reality of Palestinians today, from having to navigate checkpoints in their own land to being displaced from their homes to live the rest of their lives in refugee camps. Srour’s approach to storytelling is a reminder that the struggles of the past continue to echo in the present, urging the viewer to reflect on the challenges Palestinians face today.

Saglier, Viviane. "Decolonization, Disenchantment, and Arab Feminist Genealogies of Worldmaking." Feminist Media Histories, vol. 8, no. 1, 200.

[hummussexual]

An embrace of queer identity and intimacy, the newly installed exhibition 'Habibi, the revolutions of love' showcases and questions the ideas surrounding queer love in the Arab world and beyond, countering orthodox perceptions through creativity.

Florence Massena 08 February, 2023

In a colourful setting on level -1 of the Arab World Institute (IMA) in the heart of Paris, installations, videos, paintings, drawings, designs and embroideries are showcased until February 19 under the title Habibi, the revolutions of love.

The exhibition focuses on queer love and expression in the Arab world, as well as Iran and Afghanistan, shedding light on an often taboo topic in the countries the artists come from.

The exhibition itself is far from a narrow portrayal of love under oppression.

It goes through motions and narratives, embracing more complex issues such as exile, politics, survival, intimacy and finding happiness, either at home or abroad.

The selection of more than 20 artists, sometimes gathered in collaborations or collectives, from very various countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Algeria, Jordan and Tunisia, bring to life a lot of creativity and desire.

The exhibition turns easily into a conversation between the artists and the themes, which answer each other with harmony and subtlety.

The project itself was born from conversations led between curators and contemporary artists during and after the IMA’s exhibition Divas, from Oum Kalthoum to Dalida back in 2021.

“There were these constellations of themes that could be explored setting up around us, and we have seen a lot of interrogations on genders and sexualities,” Elodie Bouffard, the exhibition curator alongside Khalid Abdel-Hadi and Nada Majdoub, told The New Arab. “It kind of imposed itself on us!”

The choice was not to focus on geography and lead a “country by country” organisation, but instead to highlight the creations’ quality and make it a topic among the others as it is often done in an institution such as IMA.

“The artistic expression is itself enough, led by a new scene that will certainly make the contemporary scene of tomorrow,” Elodie said.

“We made sure to see what united the pieces, and we saw that it goes beyond the topic of sexuality. Some cross paths, some clash with their activism and others are more playful, some are feminists… The queer topic is the line that allows us to question the ideas of norms, social identities, body’s politicisation, the question of surveillance as well as the way others perceived you, notably through the European gaze.”

Despite the choice to open to many countries and artists, Lebanon is overly represented, through the presence of many Lebanese artists but also artists who lived and worked in Beirut for a few months or years.

“In Lebanon, you have a lot of personalities, many spaces dedicated to cultural interventions as well as an activist History through organizations like Helem for example [first LGBTQIA+ rights organisation in the Arab world] that did a lot for LGBTQ+ struggles,” Elodie explained. “All of this combined makes Lebanon an unavoidable place to work and exhibit for queer artists from the region.”

This is the case of Alireza Shojaian, an Iranian artist born in 1988 and who lived a few years in Beirut before moving on to Paris in 2019. “I was an artist in Iran but my art was sitting in my closet,” Alireza told The New Arab.

“In Lebanon, I could create and be exhibited, there is freedom and space to do that there and that’s why it’s so represented in that exhibition. You know, the first time I was exhibited was in another Arab country! I often feel that the Iranian authorities try to prevent us to travel to the rest of the region so that we don’t find the spaces of expression that exist.”

The main work he is exhibiting is a big mural called The Mirror, a self-portrait representing his suspended time in Beirut through the city in the background, his identity through the books on the shelf and his state of mind, a lingering sadness as a person in exile.

It also represents five photographs on the mirror, one of an intimate moment of his life, one of his military service, Bashasha and a friend by 1950s Lebanese photographer Heshem el Madani, US gay activist and politician Harvey Milk, as well as Two Men Dancing, a photograph from Robert Mapplethorpe, from a 1980s performance piece entitled The Power of Theatrical Madness.

Shojaian felt important to participate in such an exhibition, first because of its location: “It’s in an institution dedicated to the Arab world and the topic LGBTQ+ has always been neglected there. It is important to show that this topic exists in the Arab world, and towards the West to also remind them where the laws and rules against homosexuality come from, that maybe they can help.”

Most of the official status in the Arab world on homosexuality was taken during the British and French mandates and occupations, for example in Lebanon as a colonial relic from the early 1900s. “It is also for me, as an Iranian, because I am able to give my voice to the thousands who can’t speak up in my country,” Alireza added.

Also quite political, Tunisian artist Aïcha Snoussi, born in 1989 and currently living in Paris, decided to tackle the tough topics of the people who drowned during the crossing of the Mediterranean sea through a big installation, as well as the troubles of the world through a self-portrait, pensive in her room. “The two works echo each other,” she told The New Arab.

“Multiplicity on one side, with more than 700 bottles filled with old paper, archives, inks and organic elements. The uniqueness on the other side, that of a canvas made of the same materials but recounting the chaos of the world from within.”

In the exhibition, Aïcha also noted the themes of exile, history, archives, memory, transmission and struggle, which are according to her “intimately linked to that of the body, its representations and these evanescences”.

“These sensitivities and trajectories give rise to new narratives, which are relatively under-represented in art but also in queer culture, and therefore necessary,” she added. “It is also a visibility that sends a message of power and resistance to those who recognize themselves in it.”

Other artists chose to address those themes of both love and exile through a more intimate approach, such as the Lebanese visual artistic duo Jeanne & Moreau, composed of Lara Tabet and Randa Mirza.

They set up a bedroom displaying pictures and videos they exchanged during their long-distance relationship time as well as when they started living together, first in Lebanon then in France, through crisis, exile and changes in their approach to art and each other.

“First we were apart, there was a desire of seduction, then the 2019 crisis in Lebanon with an economic collapse and then the explosion of the Beirut port,” Lara Tabet told The New Arab.

“At the same time as those repeated crises, our relationship changed too. We decided to exhibit a bedroom, where a lot of intimate things are renegotiated, which also represents a delicate balance between the idyllic privilege of living as a nomad and the harshness of forced exile, as well as domesticity.”

The installation combines intimacy inside and activism outside for their country, the crisis inviting itself into intimacy through the destruction of their Beirut apartment during the August 2020 explosion.

Sexuality, struggles, identity and perception of yourself go across the narratives IMA exhibited in an explosion of themes, freedom and colours in an expression space where audiences often associate pain and shame.

[leftistfeminista]

A poster of a female cadre photographed by Christian Freund. Source: Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG).

Women’s Liberation

A striking aspect of the popular revolutionary movement in Dhufar was the PFLOAG’s commitment to the liberation of women, a policy that was adopted at the 1968 Hamrin Conference. The PFLOAG believed that the liberation of women was central to the success of the revolution which would not come about automatically but through a sustained struggle against the “objective backwardness” of society.  1 The Dhufar Revolution was influenced by Maoist thought, including on the equality of female cadres, popularised through Mao’s famous declaration that “women can hold up half the sky”.  2 Women’s political participation in the armed struggle alongside men was deemed an important aspect of equality while specific policies were later implemented in the liberated areas to transform the social position of women, such as the banning of female circumcision, polygyny, and the reduction of the bride price after unsuccessful attempts to abolish it completely.

The PFLOAG’s policies remarkably challenged the “unhappy marriage” between feminism and Marxism, as conceptualised by the Western feminist scholar Heidi Hartmann in 1979 – in other words, the tension between women’s liberation and national liberation. 3 The PFLOAG recognised the double oppression faced by women, both in terms of their position as women in relation to men, and in terms of their position as women in relation to the economic system. Attracted to the PFLOAG’s radical position, the Lebanese filmmaker Heiny Srour travelled to Dhufar in 1971, capturing documentary footage of women fighters later used in her 1974 film The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived (Saat El Tahrir Dakkat). 4

I was a defeated feminist in Lebanon. The Lebanese Left was not interested in feminist issues and kept closing the subject under various pretexts, one being that the women will be free when the main enemy, Imperialism, is defeated. […] I couldn’t believe my ears when the representative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Occupied Arabian Gulf opened the subject of women from his own initiative and proudly said that the Front was fighting against women’s oppression — because women were not just oppressed by imperialism and class society, but also by their father, husband, brothers. I dropped my other film projects and put all my energy into making this film.  5”

— Heiny Srour on The Hour of Liberation Has Arrived

The campaigns for, and implementation of, the above mentioned policies came through the initiatives of revolutionary women, the Bahraini cadre Laila Fakhro (Huda Salem) for example pushed the PFLOAG to ban female circumcision and limit the bride price. 6 Laila Fakhro also played an important role in the revolution through political education, teaching, care-work, women’s activities, and the PFLOAG’s media and foreign relations. 7 The PFLOAG’s other main periodical, 9 Yunyu (9 June), was a monthly magazine which preceded Sawt al-Thawra’s founding, set up in June 1970 by Laila Fakhro and Abdel Rahman al-Nuaimi (Said Seif). 8

Sawt al-Thawra promoted women’s political participation in armed struggle, drawing parallels to female fighters such as Vietnamese women and thereby placing the PFLOAG’s revolutionary women in the wider tradition of the revolutionary Third World. The periodical highlighted and documented women’s protest, arrests and mistreatment of women and girls by the British-backed regime, and women’s internationalist activities. Women’s representatives and delegations took part in many regional and international conferences, prior to and after the official establishment of the Omani Women’s Organisation in June 1975, a committee headed by Wafa Yasser.

The first official visit by an Omani women’s delegation, comprising Nadia Khaled and Huda Muhad, took place in July 1975 in a symposium on women’s economic development organised by the Soviet Women’s Committee in Alma-Ata, Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. Following this trip to the Soviet Union, the delegation visited the Democratic Republic of Vietnam at the invitation of the Women’s Federation of Vietnam. 9 These encounters were important for producing strong ties of solidarity, the exchange of experiences and ideas, and direct engagement with a major source of their own inspiration, the Vietnamese people’s struggle. Most significantly, these material links demonstrate that Dhufar was not a detached revolution in a little-known and distant part of the Gulf, but one that was globally connected and which importantly placed emphasis on women’s political participation.

[lemonlovemeanslove]

@mechamullet tagged me after sharing some really cool music (most of which I wasnt very familiar with, but really enjoyed, learning about new music is always great) and so im sharing the 4 albums ive been listening to lately. Idk how familiar my mutuals will be with some of these, so im sharing a bit of context :)

Raasük by Mashrou' Leila - a lebanese band that is one of, if not THE biggest indie/alternative rock bands in the middle east, which is a ridiculousLY small scene in comparison to a lot of other places. Theyve been kinda iconic since their debute in 2009, having an openly gay vocalist, being vocal feminists, and critising the goverment. I know most of my mutuals arent from this part of the world, but im sure you get why that would be quite a big deal. Sadly they disdanded last year after the online hate became too much. This is my favorite album from them at this moment, I really recommend Ala Babu and Wa Nueid from this track, but everyting is great.

The Beirut School again by Mashrou' Leila - my favorite track from this album is definitely Shim El Yasmine, I recommend looking at the lyrics for this one, tho i dont think you need to understand what their saying in general (my arabic is very bad, and i still enjoy their songs) Cavalry is also a really good track.

Melody A.M. by Röyksopp - a norwegian electronic dou. They make great study music as it isnt too distracing. very nostalgic sound.

Kristina från Duvemåla by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus - this is a swedish musical form the 90s by the two dudes from ABBA lol, it became VERY big in Sweden (i am somewhat obsessed with it). It has, im my opinion, the greates Swedish female vocalist, Helen Sjöholm, in the main cast. The songs Du Måste Finnas and Guldet Blev Till Sand are the most popular ones. Du Måste Finnas also has a HORRIBLE english version which I hate a lotttt. Sadly the subtitled translation is also a bit off/stilted in english, which is a shame since the lyrics are almost the best part. If you do not like musicals, u will not like this.

Some live versions, plz watch these instead lols

I wanna tag @schepper-wubs @hatenayousei and @saesyndrome in this also, since im kinda curious about they listen too :) hope that at least some of these tracks will be enjoyable!!

[godhound]

🕊. francis, 20, she/he, white, lebanese brazilian, settler on occupied mbyá guarani land.

🫒 . catholic, always evolving path. looking into the maronite church. veiling part-time, modest.

🫒 . inclusive of all faiths and practices (and lack thereof), anyone is welcome here. against proselytising.

🫒 . no tolerance for bigotry or white supremacy. against imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and right-wing ideology. feminist, pro-abortion.

🫒 . not an expert on religion and spirituality but open to questions and giving advice and support. prayer requests welcome.

🕊 . main blog: @tortiefrancis

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Milena Dravić (Horoskop, Kros Contri, Devojka)—She's obviously not a Hollywood star. But she's absolutely THE biggest star from Serbia/Yugoslavia and one of the most stunning faces of European cinema. She was obviously the hottest in her film W.R. - Misterije organizma (just google it) but that's from 1971 so I guess that we can't count. But listen! She was stunning even in her earlier films. Her charisma was unparalleled. She's mostly known for Yugoslav Black Wave films (including Puriša' Djordjevič movies) but she starred in basically everything. I wish more people would remember her and appreciate her because she was truly the 60' icon.

Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad, Muriel or the Time of Return)—delphine seyrig was a magnetically compelling and radiant lebanese-born french actress, director, and activist, known for appearing in arthouse classics like alain resnais' enigmatic last year at marienbad and collaborating with avant-garde and feminist filmmakers

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Delphine Seyrig propaganda:

Obviously she is very hot and talented, but she was also a filmmaker in her own right, making documentaries about the women's rights movement in France in the 1970s and choosing projects for their feminist subjects (Jeanne Dielmann for example).

MILF. Who said that

[menalez]

Hi, I’m a learning radical feminist from Lebanon. I was born Druze so it’s nice to see another minority from the Middle East run a feminist blog unapologetically! I just wanted to say I really appreciate your blog, it’s really reassuring and inspiring to read you. Sorry for being on anon. Have a nice day or night, whenever you see this. ❤️

omgg i think ur the first druze to msg me actually!! nice to hear from you anon. i hope you're dealing well with the struggles going on in lebanon rn, ive heard from lebanese friends that its a total mess rn especially economically.

thank you for your sweet words & no need to apologise for being anon <3 ik some people are shy or nervous or paranoid nd i get it. always great to hear from other minorities from the MENA region, no matter how.

[saedatshan]

LGBTQ Life Dangerous in Middle East and North Africa

Many Middle Eastern and North African countries have laws restricting sexual behavior. Countries including Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates criminalize certain sexual acts between two people of the opposite sex, marital infidelity, and people of the same sex. Those who belong to the LGBTQ community face persecution, placing themselves in danger when they openly identify as LGBTQ or appear to promote alternative lifestyles.

According to a February 2021 article from the House of Commons Library, many of the laws used to address the LGBTQ community in North African and Middle Eastern countries originate from British and French colonial rule and from Sharia law. These forms of legislation address same-sex relationships by explicitly using gender-neutral language using phrases such as “unnatural sex” or “sexual intercourse contrary to the order of nature.” In Qatar, for example, legislators have written gender-specific language such as a man “enticing” or “instigating” another man into law.

In Sudan and Kuwait, legislators also criminalize sexual acts between two men. Lebanese and Syrian lawmakers criminalize any act falling into the “unnatural sex” category. In some instances, the authorities in these countries have used the term “unnatural sex” to criminalize sexual acts between two people of the same sex.

The laws in some of these countries also target expressions of gender identity. In the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, the law prohibits gender nonconformity. Kuwait, in particular, enacted laws in 2007 that criminalized imitating the opposite sex. Wearing gender-non-conforming clothing can culminate in charges of promoting debauchery and indecent behavior. These laws, if broken, lead to arbitrary arrests and degrading treatment. Alternatively, some laws contain vague language using words such as morality and indecency to refer to behaviors promoting homosexuality. If caught distributing such material in Algeria and Yemen, the authorities label this as a breach of modesty.

In Iraq, singing songs or participating in broadcasts deemed indecent brings the individual or group under the scrutiny of the authorities. Jordan authorities also punish people who appear to support LGBTQ, scrutinizing any behavior deemed immodest, and publication of materials that go against what is perceived as public morals and indecent is considered a crime.

These laws establish a framework for meting out punishment for people suspected of the above acts. A few cases illustrate the severity with which the authorities handle those who identify, promote, or engage in the above behaviors. For instance, Sarah Hegazy, who identified as an Egyptian queer feminist, held up a rainbow flag at a concert in Cairo to support the lead singer, an openly gay band member of the group Mashrou' Leila, in 2017. The photo was posted on Facebook, and Hegazy received thousands of hateful messages. The police arrested Hegazy for joining a group (the band) that interfered with the country’s constitution, and she later took her in life while in exile in Canada.

Security forces in Tunisia threatened to arrest, physically assault, and sexually assault LGBTQ activists in June 2021 as part of countrywide demonstrations. The authorities also outed and smeared individuals who identified as LGBTQ, exposing their personal information and identities without their consent.

Authorities are not the only groups that threaten the liberty and safety of LGBTQ individuals and their supporters. In Saudi Arabia, Yemeni blogger Mohamad al-Bokari stated on one of his blogs that he supported equal rights for all, including equal rights for the LGBTQ community. In response, armed groups threatened to kill him, and he fled on foot from Yemen to Saudi Arabia.

Because much of this legislation cracks down on promoting or supporting LGBTQ platforms, LGBTQ individuals under the authorities' scrutiny have little recourse in dealing with situations that make life very difficult. Denied even the right to express support for this group of people, activists such as al-Bokari, who was guilty of supporting equal rights for all, can find themselves in a maelstrom, one taking years to recover from. Ultimately, LGBTQ communities in this region fights for their dignity in the ways that make most sense for their individual contexts, and they are worthy of our solidarity.

[girl-innovators-houda]

Women Filmmakers and the Girl's Eye View

I decided to watch "Catherine Called Birdy" with Lena Dunham as the director. Known for advancing a feminist perspective influenced by the experiences of the millennial generation, Dunham has played an essential role in the television series Girls. The film "Catherine Called Birdy" touches on topics such as menstruation and sexuality, often in a comedic sense, while still discussing the importance of those topics. I think what was unique about the way this film touched on those subjects is that it wasn't hidden or just briefly referenced, and that was refreshing to see. 

In the film, Birdy must navigate her father's plans of marrying her off for profit, or as it is said, "because it is her duty." She also "becomes a woman" when she gets her period for the first time. What I found particularly disturbing to watch was that because she got her period, she MUST be married off now, regardless of her age. 

"As the time approaches when we must wed, we are forced to undertake lady lessons. My least favorite words, together in one terrible phrase." Birdy

Personally, I didn't see anything special about the mother and Birdy's relationship. The relationship with her father was also...horrible. I hated that they tried to redeem him at the very last second of the film. 

Overall I enjoyed the film; it was a breath of fresh air. Especially the fact that essential subjects were present in the movie without making it so in our faces. 

Side note:

The subject of young marriage reminded me of a Lebanese film I wanted to mention in case anybody wanted to watch it; I highly recommend it. It is called Capernaum (2018) by Nadine Labaki, a female Lebanese actor, director, and activist. The film touches on subjects of marrying off young daughters, homelessness in Lebanon, and the idea of parents having too many kids that they can't take care of. 

[hubbamamaghanuj]

about me!

مرحبًا (hello)!

Welcome to Hubba Mama Ghanuj, a blog written for female travellers interested in Lebanon! Pictured above is myself in one of my favourite cities Lisbon, Portugal and my beautiful friends hiking in the Sapa valley, Vietnam. A lover of travel from a young age, I have been blessed to see some beautiful parts of the world, some hard to even imagine in the mundane of the everyday! For me, travel is a tool of culturing oneself to fully understand what it means to be a global citizen whilst taking oneself on a self explorative journey to find the type of person we are and what we are capable of. As Pico Lyer says, "What we find outside ourselves has to be inside ourselves for us to find it".

Over the coming weeks I will be publishing blogs about the state of Lebanon, located in the Middle East. After gaining independence in 1943, the state has rapidly introduced itself and its capital Beirut to the world as one of the bustling hubs of the Middle East. Despite facing tragedies and conflicts, Lebanon remains to carry with it a strong soul and plenty of kibbeh! My blogs will be largely written from a feminist lens to explore the women of Lebanon, their roles and the feminist movements there through the assigned topics. Though lacking in comparison to other countries, Lebanon has a rich, overlooked history of women's rights. Above is a picture of Elissa, a famed Lebanese pop diva who is outspoken on the issue of women's rights, evidently in her song "My mirror" which raises protest against domestic violence.

Much Love Habibis!

Izzie x