Aug 26, 2021Member-onlyAn idea called DarayaFive years ago, in August of 2016, the remaining people of Daraya, Syria, were forcibly evacuated after a deal was reached with the Assad regime to end the siege and return the town to regime control. The following was initially published on Al Jumhuriya on 9 December 2018. By the…Syria10 min readSyria10 min read
Mar 22, 2021Member-onlySyrian melancholy in Lebanon’s revolutionThis piece was originally published on December 6th, 2019 on Al Jumhuriya and was co-written with Dara Foi’Elle (pseudonym). Translations: Spanish, German. On 22 October, five days into the ongoing Lebanese uprising, an artist based in Syria’s Idlib drew a mural of the late Palestinian-Syrian-Lebanese intellectual Samir Kassir with the…Lebanon6 min readLebanon6 min read
Mar 21, 2021Member-onlyLebanon’s militarized masculinityThis piece was originally published as part of Al-Jumhuriya’s “Gender, Sexuality, and Power” on 20 December 2018. A translation into Arabic was also made by Yasser Alzaiat. In the summer of 2017, as (unfounded) rumors began to spread on social media of Syrians “going to protest against our honorable army,”…Lebanon10 min readLebanon10 min read
Mar 15, 2021Member-onlyThe Lebanese revolution must abolish the kafala systemThis piece was originally published on Al Jazeera on November 14th, 2019. On Tuesday, November 5, the 20th day of the ongoing uprising in Lebanon, an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Beirut arrived at Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport. Its cargo was seven dead bodies of Ethiopian domestic workers who had…Kafala5 min readKafala5 min read
Mar 2, 2021Member-onlyLebanon, our painfully ordinary countryReading Lebanon: A Country in Fragments by Cambridge University’s Dr. Andrew Arsan feels like reading a socio-political biography of the country’s millennials, myself included. My mother was pregnant with me when the Syrian regime bombed our home, and shortly before I was born the Lebanese government passed an amnesty law…Lebanon8 min readLebanon8 min read
Feb 27, 2021Member-onlyThe future Palestinian presentPalestinian science fiction and the protracted now. This piece was initially published on Mangal Media on August 25th, 2019. There is a concept coined by the Lebanese writer Walid Sadek which denotes a present endlessly postponed by the lack of pasts and futures. He calls it ‘the protracted now’. Since…Palestine8 min readPalestine8 min read
Feb 12, 2021Member-onlyWhy Fortress Europe and the European Union Can’t CoexistLast year, a period of time that now seems to have been relegated to the distant past in light of the COVID-19 crisis, Fortress Europe was once again brutalising the bodies of migrants and refugees on its borders with Turkey. This piece was initially published on Byline Times on April…European Union6 min readEuropean Union6 min read
Feb 11, 2021Member-onlyHezbollah’s Resistance™ against resistanceWhen Hezbollah started sending its men to Syria in 2011, the revolution against the Assad regime was still producing extraordinary momentum. The rest, as they sadly say, is history. At the time of writing, the Assad regime, backed by Russia, Iran and (mostly Iranian-backed) paramilitary forces, has retaken large parts…Lebanon18 min readLebanon18 min read
Feb 1, 2021Member-only‘Revolution everywhere’: A conversation between Hong Kong and Lebanese protestersIn 2019, simultaneous uprisings in Hong Kong and Lebanon led activists, organizers, and writers from these two locales to engage with and think about each other’s struggles This piece was originally published on Lausan on June 13th, 2020. ‘The people want the downfall of the regime’: Lebanon in struggle Lausan Collective (LC): Can you tell us a bit about why the…Lebanon13 min readLebanon13 min read
Jan 20, 2021Member-onlyA look at the 2019 Lebanon uprising through its chantsThe October 2019 uprising in Lebanon has unleashed a wave of creativity that continues to rock the very foundations of Lebanese politics. Originally published on Shado Mag on November 9th, 2019. Republished by Transnational Solidarity Network. Ever since it erupted on the night of October 17th, the uprising in Lebanon…Lebanon Protest8 min readLebanon Protest8 min read
