Democratisation - Human rights

These days, to ask what effect the Arab Spring had on women is to pose a question which seems ridiculous, irrelevant almost, given the bloody and brutal outcomes of revolutions in countries such as Syria, Libya and Yemen, and the ongoing repercussions of the uprising in Egypt, which leave no room for doubt that the dreams of the millions who demonstrated in Egypt's Tahrir Square in 2011 chanting ‘Bread, Liberty and Social Justice’ and calling for ‘Dignity and Freedom’ widespread in Syria, Libya and Yemen, have become terrifying nightmares which have touched on the lives of all members of society. But the progressive feminist movement across the Middle East is recovering from a particularly traumatic ride, and are finding they are being forced to fight again on issues which were on the table at the very birth of the movement and were felt by many to have been reconciled.

Immediately after we’d finished discussing the challenges facing Aleppo in front of a large audience I was asked by a friend of mine, a leading figure in the Syrian civil society movement, how I was able to appear so unmoved, without anger or emotion, even when talking about the most painful experiences of my life and my losses, such as my mother being martyred; the interrogations I had faced, or other similar incidents, experienced by all Syrian activists such as myself. Sometimes, he said, he was afraid he might one day break down on stage and they’d say ‘Those Syrians! Babies. So emotional!’

The Ba’ath regime in Syria has never truly resolved the national debate over how to maintain the secular nature of the state. Constant assertions of its secularism in official and media discourses are at odds with the actions of the state and the manner in which the country is run. The Ba’ath Party itself, which has ruled the country for the past half century, pretends to be proud of its secular constitution; however, the party has never managed to persuade anyone that it is a genuinely secular organisation. In the 1980s, while militiamen loyal to the current president’s uncle, Rifaat al-Assad, were ripping the hijab from the heads of women in the capital, Syrian television continued to broadcast the Friday prayers every week. In the 1990s, even as thousands of Islamists crowded into the regime’s prisons, the number of mosques was on the rise. State security-run al-Assad Institutes for Qur’an Memorization were opening their doors to new students - a large proportion of which are now in 2016 fighting with Islamist groups against the regime in Damascus.

The Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East has the pleasure to invite you to the launch of the 11th issue of Perspectives: “Khadija, do not close the door!” - Women in Peace, in War and in Between Wednesday, December 14, 2016, 7 pm Dar El-Nimer for Arts & Culture, Clemenceau, Beirut  

Repression of civil society is on the rise all over the world. The charter aims to support civil society organizations as activists throughout the world, to advocate for their rights and freedom of action, and to demand government guarantees.

While wandering around in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, Luna Ali reflects in four versatile sections on two important stages of her life. People, flavours and places make Luna look back into her past and different worlds of thought.

Last performances this week 27, 28, 29, 30 October  English subtitles on 27, 29, 30 October French subtitles on the 28th Book your seat on joggingbooking@gmail.com ahead as the space can take in 75 to 80 persons maximum  Or call/WhatsApp 78841310 / 03035298 Looking forward to sharing this experience with you!

After the recent opening of Horsh Beirut to the public, Assabil Friends of Public Libraries and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Middle East will soon host #Horsh2016!

On Europe's beaches, women are requested to show more skin, on Lebanese beaches, men are requested to cover up more. What in Germany is considered to be just normal swimming trunks is considered inappropriate in Lebanon.

Roua Seghaier reviews Angela Davis’ "Freedom is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement." She highlights the intersections of history, memory, resistance, and movement building in times of violence. "International solidarity is not only possible, it is already showing signs of its emergence. Davis explains that the Ferguson movement has understood that it does not need the traditional charismatic Black male leadership. Without romanticizing the movement, she explains that agency shall not be limited to leaders, centering collectivity at the core of change instead."

In the aftermath of the January 25 Revolution, self-defense tactics became popular against the fear of disorder and the increase of public sexual violence in Cairo. In this article, I examine a number of examples of self-defense invoked by public and private actors after the 2011 Revolution, and differentiate between two types of practices. The first, articulated around the right of legitimate self-defense recognized in the Egyptian penal code, aim to maintain or to restore the established order through the identification of an Other that embodies a threat to the self, property or community. In contrast to this, radical modes of self-defense endeavor to subvert the given order by disrupting the gendered logic of masculinist and state protection and promoting horizontal relations of care and solidarity. Drawing on data generated through interviews with members of the initiative OpAntiSH and the collective WenDo, this article explores the importance of strategies and communities of autonomous self-defense in Egypt in relation to legal and policy measures adopted against sexual harassment by El-Sisi’s regime since 2014.

Spring has returned. That is, SHAMS (the Cultural Cooperative Association for Youth in Theater and Cinema), Cultural Resource and partners have announced the program of the 2016 Spring Festival.

On the day they removed her name completely from my official papers, my existence was transferred from her “guardianship” to the “guardianship” of my employer, whose name is on my residence card. Struck with fierce bitterness and sadness, I felt as though I had been shattered, like our house. My mother said to me: “It is as though I didn’t give birth to you, or as if I am not Lebanese. It is as though I mean nothing at all.”

Looking at Aliaa Elmahdy’s act of protest through posting naked photos of herself on her blog, this paper studies the debates that followed. I complicate the juxtaposing between Femen’s tactics and Elmahdy’s act of nudity through engaging in questions of feminism/colonialism and feminism/conservatism. By examining articles that were written about Femen, nudity, Muslim women, and body politics, I show that the debates ran the risk of stabilizing feminism within static dogmatic beliefs. Read the full Article in KOHL: A JOURNAL FOR BODY AND GENDER RESEARCH,VOLUME 1. ISSUE 2, WINTER 2015

This paper reads Abdellah Taïa’s Salvation Army, a semi-autobiographical film that chronicles the coming of age of a Moroccan boy through its queer affects. 

Even though the diversity in Arabic-language hip-hop might make generalizations difficult, journalists seem to find it fairly easy to celebrate the music’s role in the perceived Arab march for Western democratic values. Titles such as “Is hip hop driving the Arab Spring?” from the BBC, and “Palestinians In Lebanon Find A Political Tool In Hip-Hop” from NPR, are indicative of the potential attributed to this musical genre.

The Lebanese constitution stipulates that all citizens, male and female, are equal before the law in terms of their rights and duties. Karima Chebbo, who runs the legal unit of the My Nationality is a Right for Me and My Family campaign acknowledges that the reality is very different and that the country’s laws contain aspects that are unfair and inequitable, shedding light on the situation of Lebanese mothers married to foreigners being denied the right to pass on their nationality to their families. 

The Lebanese Penal Code invokes “nature” in order to justify the persecution of homosexuality. Indeed, nature seems to have an undeniable authority. In Beirut, civil society actors now questioned this paradigm and launched an international and pluri-disciplinary inquiry on the multiple facets of the concept of nature.

Departing completely from the norm, Abou Faour published lists of actual businesses that have persisted in producing or selling food unfit for consumption. Providing citizens with information that would allow them to avoid threats was the least that the state can do, given that its duty to protect them against such threats was a difficult task in the face of powerful vested interests.

When it comes to electing a President, March 14 and March 8, remain divided over a consensual candidate but both proponents and opponents are comparatively fine with reaping the benefits of renewing their parliamentary mandate. What might sound as if it was a headline from a satire magazine, for the Lebanese is a frustrating reality.

There’s not a city in the world without its own contradictions, dynamism and a spirit which certain visitors can feel, and which it emits for some of its residents to reach out and grasp. But Beirut is a special and unique case. The Lebanese capital, growing ever more densely populated thanks to internal migration and the great Syrian exodus has become the locus for a staggering intensification of these contradictions, dynamics and differences.

"Back to zero: Palestinian refugees who after the nakba had built their lives and existences in Syria have been forced to leave. While their memories of Palestine are vivid, they feel they have lost yet another home. Watch Carol Mansour's film "We cannot go there now, my Dear", produced in collaboration with Heinrich Böll Stiftung - Middle East."  

At least two days before the seventy-first celebration of Lebanese independence on November 22, patriotic responsibility dictates that, if parliamentary elections have not been held, then a law must be in place extending the term of the current parliament for the second time in succession, lest Lebanon—on its Independence Day—be transformed into a series of tribal states instead of the state of tribes it is today.

The LGBT community in Lebanon has made important gains, but continued abuses remind us that there is much more to be done.

“No construction or any other permit is being or will be sought in the foreseeable future as far as I am aware,” said a representative of the majority land holders. But despite the new apparent roadblock to any development, there’s also no plans to turn the land over to the public.

Lebanon is searching a new President - so far, no solution seems to be in sight. What does it mean for the country, and how can civil society support the process? Translated from the Arabic by Robin Moger.

"On January 28, 2014, Naji al-Dahdah, a magistrate in Jdeideh el-Metn, Lebanon, issued a ruling acquitting a transexual individual accused of engaging in sexual relations with men. The ruling carries great significance, not just for the legal status of transexuals, but also because of its implications for interpreting Article 534 of the Lebanese Penal Code."

What happened to the women in the Syrian revolution? In the beginning, the strong participation of women in Syria's protests could not be overlooked. We continue hearing some significant female voices. But Wael Sawah writes, militarization has meant a "change of flavour".  

Gender discrimination stemming from family, sect, and state in Lebanon inhibits women’s full and equal public participation and places them at a vastly inferior starting position in politics.  

Peaceful La Sagesse Street is about to experience an uproar the like of which it has never known before as the Beirut city authorities renewed the La Sagesse-Al Turk highway project. What is this project aiming to and why it provoked outrage and mobilized the forces of civil society?  

How was the relation between the educational institutions and the Baath regime and what is the current situation after two years of the Syrian revolution’s breakout?  

April 24, 2013 When the nationality Law was drawn up in the 1920s the women’s movement was fighting to eradicate illiteracy among women; today, the universities throng with excellent female students of whom Lebanon is proud. Why then bury our heads in the sands of the past and claim that “the higher interests of the state” bar them from one of the basic rights of citizenship?

March 14, 2013 Each time people would leave the mosques to protest (at the start of the revolution) something would be added to what had gone before: a new understanding of what a mosque was would take deeper root and the old concept of mosque would crumble further.

March 13, 2013 In the early 2000, the Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action, CRTD.A, and its network of feminist allies in the Arab region identified the denial of Arab women’s right to nationality to be a resilient form of state driven discrimination against women. How this reality changed during the last decade and what are the needed actions?

This article takes a different approach to electoral law, re-examining the critical questions being asked in an effort to shed light on the challenges confronting the process of reform in general, and electoral reform in particular.

This article tackles many aspects of the Muslims’ lives in the western countries and their views about religion and freedom. In addition, the author Ibrahim Ramadan discusses how the west views the Muslims and what causes all these preconceptions.

On Saturday May 12, a young man from Tripoli Lebanon, named Shadi el Mawlawi received an important phone call. The events triggered by this call ended up rocking Tripoli and the rest of Lebanon for several weeks.

Beneath layers of complexity and political wrangling, we should not forget that the Syrian revolutionaries are fighting for their basic rights to dignity, equality and a respectable standard of living. More than a political decision, supporting them is first and foremost a humanitarian and moral duty.

Despite endemic discrimination and oppression, Syria's Kurds have been hesitant to join the Syrian uprising against the Assad regime. A larger Kurdish participation would significantly impact the course of events, but the various Kurdish political actors have had diverging reactions to the revolution, the role of Turkey and the fate of Kurdish interests in a free Syria.

assin al-Haj Saleh, dissects the functioning, motivations, funding and ideology of the Syrian 'shabiha', from their appearance in the 1970s until their reemmergence during the revolution. Saleh shows their central role in maintaining a regime in power that has long lost touch with people’s interests, morality and reality.

A personal account of the motives and dynamics of the Iraqi protest movement that found inspiration in the Arab revolutions.

Through the slogans of the Arab spring and through historical insights on Arab social movements, Fawwaz Traboulsi reviews the revolutionary path ahead to democratization.

During the Arab uprisings, an unprecedented number of women took to the streets, paving the way for a more important role in politics. However, in the transitional period that follows, they now have to fight against their exclusion from the political arena.

From Syria, 8 months after the beginning of the popular uprising, this article offers a personal account of the brutality of the repression and its implications on the lives of human right activists.

teven Seidman argues “that the culture of Hamra tolerates considerable diversity in personal styles and itineraries, but non-sectarian others (gender, sexual, and ethnic) are sites of anxiety and mistrust; they survive on the borders or back regions of Beirut.” Published in Cooperation with Idafat: the Arab Journal of Sociology

Lebanon’s recent parliamentary elections, which resulted in a surprise victory for the pro-Western March 14 coalition after months of prediction that the Opposition would win, contradicted many of the myths and narratives that had surrounded the election since the signing of the Doha Accord in May 2008. Myths that were disproved were linked to each camp’s strengths and weaknesses as well as an overestimation of the election’s significance in terms of Lebanon’s future.

On January 31st 2009, Iraqis held their second provincial elections since the fall of the Baathist regime in 2003. The results signaled widespread support for secular and nationalist forces and serious electoral losses for the religious federalist parties, who had been accused of mass corruption and mismanagement. Significantly, Sunni Arabs for the first time actively participated in the elections, thus reversing the disproportionate results of their boycott in 2005.

Arising from an interest in the study of the modalities of production of knowledge in and about the Arab region, this paper deals with Occidentalism, understood as the body of narratives and discourses by which Europeans and the US societies, governments and policies are represented and interpreted in this part of the world.