Women's eNews (https://womensenews.org/tag/lebanon/)
Recently, in northern Lebanon, our organization, Concern Worldwide, took in the stories of Syrian women living as war refugees. “For so long I’ve wanted someone to come,” said one. “I’ve been waiting to tell my story.”
The sponsorship system for foreign workers is like modern-day slavery, particularly for the 200,000 female domestic workers in Lebanon, say critics. They want to stop employers from seizing passports and operating outside the labor laws.
It was billed as a forum on Arab women and the Arab Spring. But Paola Daher found that the $300 entry free and luxury-hotel ambiance ensured that any truly revolutionary, or even slightly controversial, topics were kept off the agenda.
Lebanon’s parliament recently dropped a bill to criminalize violence against women. Paola Salwan Daher says activists have pursued the matter as part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence that culminates on Dec. 10, Human Rights Day.
In the third and latest major demonstration in Lebanon, protesters of the sectarian or “confessional” system took special aim at religious family laws that prevent civil marriages and discriminate against women in various ways.
Before Lebanon’s June 7 election, politicians raised hopes that a law barring women from passing citizenship to their children would be overturned. Now a leading advocate feels betrayed.
U.S. writer Cathy Sultan lived in Lebanon during its long civil war. In 2002, she returned to the Mideast and interviewed civilians about life in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Now, her new book provides rare glimpses at the region’s people.
Nouhad Moawad left Beirut on July 2 for an internship at Women’s eNews. Majoring in translation at Beirut’s Lebanese University, the tri-lingual (English, French and Arabic) Moawad wished to spend the summer immersed in English and New York City.
As women’s absence from Middle East political systems becomes increasingly conspicuous, female politicians and scholars in Lebanon pin the problem on a patriarchal system of political hereditary.
(WOMENSENEWS) — Raghida Dergham, a well-known New York-based commentator on Middle East issues, has been indicted by a Lebanese military court for “dealing with the enemy” because she spoke at a U.S. seminar that also included a former Israeli military official.Dergham, a Lebanese American, is the New York correspondent for the London-based Al-Hayat, an Arabic language newspaper, and one of the very few Arab women’s voices on the Middle East. She is a member of the board of directors of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which protested the indictment, as did the U.S. State Department, the Committee to Protect Journalists and other organizations.The indictment was handed down on March 21 but only recently came to light.The indictment cited Dergham’s appearance with Uri Lubrani, a former coordinator of Lebanon policy for the Israeli Defense Ministry, at a seminar in Washington, D.C., by the Institute for Near East Policy.”This latest move in a year-long campaign of harassment against Dergham is unwarranted and suggests political reasons for this attempt to silence her,” said Carole Simpson of ABC News and Bailey Morris-Eck of the Reuters Foundation, co-chairs of the International Women’s Media Foundation, in a letter to President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon.”Why is she being accused of what is essentially treason when her only offense was to appear on a panel and argue vigorously for the Lebanese position?” the letter asked.For more information, visit:Committee to Protect Journalists: http://www.iwmf.org/index.htm