This story has been updated with a follow-up post titled, “If Lebanon’s pine trees die, so will we“. Whether it’s deep in the open woodlands of Lebanon, in Beirut’s only remaining Horsh, or in between residential areas, the once plentiful parasol pine, also known as the stone pine, is under
We’ve all heard Wa Habibi, a hymn widely recognized as a Christian canticle of the Syriac/Maronite rite. Also known as the Mother’s Lament, the hymn has been epitomized by Lebanon’s Fairouz and is played/performed every year, without fail, on Good Friday. Some time ago, a friend of mine, Tony, posted
42 years ago, the Lebanese civil war started. 27 years ago, we were told it ended. For 27 years we’ve been commemorating the start of the civil war on April 13th, but not its end. Strange, no? Some say it’s because it never really ended. Others say it’s because the main players
The Lebanese political topography is changing. Independents, long marginalized, are being provided with a meaningful organization to support. The first instance of this phenomenon, Beirut Madinati, was quickly dismissed as an unsustainable occurrence by major parties and supporters alike. But there can be no denying that the mere existence of
It is no secret that in the Lebanese legal system, the interests of women are not being represented. Whenever an issue involving women is approached, it is being deliberated on through a quintessentially male filter, and through the paradigm of using it as a platform to negotiate the interests of
This article was published at StepFeed on March 22, 2017. We really don’t know much about Lebanon’s Jewish community.For many, “Lebanese Jewish” is too remote a concept. But, the truth is, Jews in Lebanon once lived side by side with the country’s Christian and Muslim populations. They even share a minorities’
Lebanon is not a state governed by a democratically elected government. It is a composition of competing feudalities with a thin veil of democracy and legitimacy thrown carelessly on top of them. The latest flagrant display of this happened on Sunday when PSP leader Walid Jumblatt officially introduced his son
Veteran Lebanese caricaturist and photographer Stavro Jabra passed away Sunday after a battle with illness, local media reported. He was 70. Born in Beirut in 1947, the renowned editorial cartoonists (also known simply as Stavro), began his long career in the 1960s. His cartoons have been featured in several publications that
Undeterred by unexpected heavy rain, hundreds of protesters marched from Sassine square, traversing the Bechara Khoury highway to Kaskas before finally gathering in Horsh Beirut, the capital city’s last remaining green space, for the scheduled speeches before the lens of several mainstream news outlets. Lebanon’s multiple women’s rights organizations united to
This article was published at StepFeed on March 11, 2017. Joumana Haddad is not your typical author, nor is she your typical woman. A rebel on her own terms, she has penned several books to date on feminism, equal rights, patriarchy, and gender in the Arab world. Also known as