Category Archives: Lebanon

Fruitful Picks at the Pomegranate Gallery

Iraq, Lebanon, Literature, Music and Dance


Drinking Juice, 2003
Bronze Cast by Oded Halahmy

The following upcoming events are scheduled for the Pomegranate Gallery in Manhattan:

WHITE MASKS: Elias Khoury’s remarkable novel of the Lebanese civil war
Book signing and Reception
Thursday, April 15th, 2010, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
“No Lebanese writer has been more successful than Khoury in telling the story of Lebanon…Khoury is one of the most innovative novelists in the Arab world.” Washington Post Book World

SWEET DATES IN BASRA: A new novel by Jessica Jiji
Book signing and Reception, with live Middle Eastern music
Thursday April 29th, 2010, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
“In this story of love and search for identity, Jessica Jiji succeeds fully in capturing passions, depth of feeling, and strong relationships beyond ethnic and religious differences.” – Naim Kattan, author of Farewell Babylon

REMEMBERING BAGHDAD: An Evening of Iraqi Music, with Yair Dalal, Omar Bashir and Erez Mounk
Saturday, May 1st, 2010, 7:00 p.m. Continue reading Fruitful Picks at the Pomegranate Gallery →

Veiled Voices

Egypt, Film and Video, Gender and Sexuality, Lebanon, Syria

Veiled Voices

Women across the Arab world are redefining their role as leaders in Islam. Veiled Voices investigates the world of Muslim women religious leaders through the eyes of three women in Lebanon, Syria and Egypt. Filmed over the course of two years, Veiled Voices reveals a world rarely documented, exploring both the public and private worlds of these women. The stories featured in the film give insight into how Muslim women are now increasingly willing to challenge the status quo from within their religion, promoting Islam as a powerful force for positive transformation in the world. Each triumphs over difficult challenges as they carve out a space to lead—both in Islam and in their communities.

For air dates, click here.

Teaching at the margins

Anthropology/Sociology, Development, Lebanon

[Webshaykh’s note: Dr. Omar Dewachi, a recent graduate in anthropology from Harvard University, writes about his experiences teaching medical anthropology in Beirut. Here is the first paragraph of his essay, which can be uploaded in full as a pdf at http://www.alterites.ca/dernier.html.]

Teaching at the Margins: Experiences of Anthropology and Medicine in a Middle Eastern Setting

by Omar Dewachi, Altérités 6(2):129-135, 2009

For the last four years I have been teaching the Social Preventive Medicine (SPM) course to first year medical students at the American University of Beirut (AUB) in Lebanon. Around eighty students attend this core course, which is part of the teachin of public health within the medical curriculum. During the course of these years I have attempted to use the SPM as a platform to introduce theories and methods in medical anthropology to medical students. As both a medical doctor trained in Iraq – and an anthropologist – trained in the United States – this task has presented me with many challenges, as well as, offered me insights into tensions between the two fields. These experiences are the subject of this essay, which attempts to explore teaching at the margins of anthropology and medicine in a Middle Eastern setting. While situated at different margins, I reflect on how this course became an interesting site for exploring the complex task of teaching medical anthropology in a non-western context, while, at the same time, raising a set of paradoxes that are particular to teaching medical anthropology in a post-colonial setting. My attempt here is not to generalize my experiences or to reify the dichotomy of East and West; rather it is to situate them within their social-political, economic and historical realities.

To read the entire article in pdf, click here.

The End of Middle East History

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Iran, Islamic History, Lebanon, Shi'a

by Richard Bulliet, Agence Global, September 28, 2009

Iran’s Arab adventure had ostensibly grown from three separate roots, Islamic revolution, Shi‘ite solidarity, and sympathy for the Palestinians. But underlying each of these was a dream dating back to the overthrow of Prime Minister Mossadegh in 1953 — the dream of confronting and confounding American imperial arrogance. Now each of the three roots withered, and confrontation with the Great Satan faded from significance along with them.

The idea of an Islamic revolution leading to an Islamic republic that would reinvigorate the faith and reveal the viciousness of Western stereotypes of Islam had lost steam before the IRI was a decade old. Internal progress had been stifled by eight years of war with Iraq and by factional infighting that sapped governmental innovation and efficiency. Though public discourse of unprecedented vitality flourished after the revolution, other intellectual and philosophical trends superseded the concept of Islamic revolution per se. However, the death knell of constructive Islamic revolution was rung on September 11, 2001 when the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon elevated nihilistic violence in the name of (Sunni) Islam above the dream of creating a model religious state in (Shi‘ite) Iran. Instead of an Islamic republic, the ideologues of the new terrorism called for an autocratic Islamic emirate or an atavistic return to a universal caliphate that had not wielded significant political power for over a thousand years. In response, Islamic political parties everywhere put behind them the idea of an Islamic republic, and with it the Iranian model, and called instead for pluralistic electoral systems in which Islamist parties would be free to run for office, but not free to disempower rival non-religious parties. Continue reading The End of Middle East History →

Poster Martyrs

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Books You Should Read, Contemporary Art, Lebanon, Shi'a


A poster commemorating the second anniversary of the assassination of Sheikh Ragheb Harb, by Merhi Merhi, 1986 (Hizballah Media Office)

by Hicham Safieddine, The Electronic Intifada, July 6

Author Christopher Hitchens might have saved himself a beating had he read Zeina Maasri’s book Off the Wall: Political Posters of the Lebanese Civil War. Hitchens, a self-proclaimed expert on all matters theological and Middle Eastern, was attacked in the streets of Beirut last February after defacing a political poster. The power of posters apparently touched Hitchens himself, who felt compelled to express his vindictiveness by attacking an image. But in a war-ravaged place like Lebanon, images can be a lot more than mere symbols. As Fawwaz Traboulsi explains in Off the Wall’s forward, they can serve as weapons, and Hitchens’ attackers must have understood that quite well.

The power of posters, as not merely symbolic weapons but also sites of hegemonic struggle during Lebanon’s civil war, is a central theme of Maasri’s book. A mix of text and image, the book is a rich and visually engaging work that tackles a dimension of war long-neglected by Lebanese historians. A sample of 150 posters (out of 700 the author has examined) in full color and printed on laminated paper occupies the center of the book and it is hard to begin reading before going through them: portraits of “heroic” leaders of all factions, clenched fists facing enemy guns, silhouettes of martyrs and landscapes of religious and nationalist symbols overlooked by dominant war figures, many marked with slogans that range from the racist to the revolutionary. But the book is a lot more than a slideshow of images summing up defining moments of the war or a straightforward critical review of the posters. Maasri delves into questions of theory, representation and meaning that shaped and defined the art of poster-making and the politics of their interpretation during times of conflict.

For the rest of this article, click here.

Hariri Lives on in Lebanon

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Lebanon


Political posters in a major square in the old city of Saida, the birthplace of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.

Hariri Lives on in Lebanon

The recent election in Lebanon on June 7 was a surprise for Hezbollah and General Michel Aoun. A number of pundits thought this unlikely alliance would come to power and set Lebanon on a new and dangerous path. But, after all, this is Lebanon, one of the most unlikely spots for a conservative Islamic takeover anywhere in the Middle East. No doubt underestimated as a shadow of his famous father, Saad Hariri led his March 14 coalition to victory, actually gaining a seat in Parliament. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Israel are no doubt pleased that Hezbollah was denied bragging rights. Iran and Syria presumably are not. Continue reading Hariri Lives on in Lebanon →