I am sick and tired of conforming!

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, […]

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 […]

قدسية الجسد

يمكن تحديد عدة محاور للدراسة والمناقشة:  وجود تنوع هائل في تحديد مصطلحات الجسد والقدسية في العالم وفي لبنان.  تعدد مواقع السلطة في كيفية إستخدام الجسد في لبنان، وجود سلوكيات ومفاهيم وممارسات رائجة أصبحت طبيعية: الجسد مسودة ومشروع لمدى الحياة (مفهوم فرداني/ مفهوم قبلي)؛ الجراحة التجميلية/ الحمية الغذائية والأعراض النفسية والجسدية  تناقض في الرسائل الإجتماعية الذي […]

The Revolution of Mentalities and the Appropriation of the Female body

Sustainable revolutions in the Middle East, and especially in the Arab World, begin with a revolution of mentalities, and the latter is based on many pillars, including the re-appropriation of the Female body.  A body being in most cases oppressed, utilized, objectified, mutilated, excessively covered or uncovered… both for individual gratification and political/economical ends. Such violence […]