I am sick and tired of being an exploited objectified woman and citizen. I am Lebanese and in my society, beauty standards changed in the last 10-15 years. We were busy with war until the early 1990s, not paying attention to physical characteristics. When we stopped killing each other with weapons, we started a devastating competition, […]
Category Archives: Women’s Roles and Situations
Les femmes sont au coeur du renouvellement dans l'authentique!
Penser au rôle des femmes en relation au renouvellement des mentalités, des moeurs et des systèmes socio-politiques, me renvoie à penser en premier lieu aux changements qui ont eu lieu suite aux décennies de guerre physique au Liban et l’impact de celle-ci sur la situation des femmes et ‘ce qui a changé’ ou non… Le […]
About Femen… My opinion!
With the article on Red Lips High Heels about the Egyptian activist and her affiliation with the FEMEN group came a lot of prolonged thoughts and debates. What is FEMEN? FEMEN is a feminist group, in Kiev, known for its topless protests. Theya��ve taken part in protests against religious institutions, international marriage agencies, sexism, sex […]
Who’s afraid of Aliaa el Mahdy?
October 2011: a young nineteen-year-old Egyptian woman blogs a naked picture of herself. What could have been but a mundane act in the west was about to stir a passionate debate around feminism religion and nudity in the Arab world. Two years later, after having been harassed, threatened and kidnapped in her home country, Aliaa […]
Presumed Incompetent! It can be tiring being a Woman in Academia!
This is one of the latest books I have been reading: Presumed Incompetent. The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia (Edited by Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. González, Angela P. Harris). Highly interesting work, especially for my case as a university professor having to deal with sexism while […]
Pamela Chrabieh, militante pour un féminisme décloisonné
Elle, c’est le Dr Pamela Chrabieh, professeure en sciences des religions à la faculté de théologie de l’USEK. Son rêve ? Insuffler du modernisme « aux féminismes arabes ». Comment ? Il suffit de s’emparer de son rouge à lèvres, porter des talons hauts et partir en croisade contre les tabous de nos sociétés phallocrates. Ayant quitté […]
On Women's Day!
…لكلّ امرأة ألف تحية
استيقظتْ ذلك الصباح، نظرت إلى أنوثتها المتعبة في المرآة، وأهدتها ابتسامة…إنّه صباح الثامن من آذار، هو يومها: اليوم العالميّ للمرأة إنّ الاحتفال بهذه المناسبة جاء على إثر عقد أول مؤتمر للاتحاد النسائي الديمقراطي والذي عُقد في باريس عام 1945. وكان أول احتفال عالمي بيوم المرأة رغم أن بعض الباحثين يرجح أن اليوم العالمي للمرأة كان […]
Sex Workers in Lebanon
Depicting the reality in Lebanon, we have different degrees of citizenship. Men are on the higher ranks, of course with the exception of homosexual and queer men, and, women are still seen as second class citizens. And still, homosexual women who are manly are viewed with more respect than the others, because anything that is […]
Women in the Middle East/ Western Asia: the Fight for Equality Continues!
I have been following closely the diverse campaigns on Facebook and other online platforms such as the “Uprising of Women in the Arab World”. Somehow, most testimonies reflect my concerns. As a Western Asian woman, but also as a university professor, researcher, author, artist and activist, in one of the most Patriarchal institutions i.e. the […]