ABSTRACT
Lebanon as a deeply divided society combines conflicting cultural, religious and political elements which are often presented in the over-simplified binary structure of Christianity versus Islam, and Western versus Arab cultural identity. The common perception of the position of women portrays Christians as more ‘liberated’ than their Muslim counterparts and, while this is true to a certain extent, it is a matter of degree rather than kind. Women of all communities are still defined primarily as daughters, sisters, wives and mothers. Before the civil war in 1975 only 19 per cent (Al-Raida 1995) of women worked outside the home and those that did reflected orthodox patterns of occupational segregation by being employed mainly as teachers, nurses, factory workers and secretaries (Sabban 1988). Under a modern occidental guise, Lebanese society was a traditional one wherein the division into a female-private and a male-public domain was evident (Karamé 1995:87). Lebanon’s second civil war, which lasted from 1975 until 1990, has had a fundamental effect on the role of women. Women of all religious traditions became involved in the war and thereby ‘claimed’ a place in the public sphere either through combat, support functions, or employment outside the house. Thus the civil war raises four key issues which will be explored in this chapter: it questions war as an activity limited to combat; it raises the issues of womanhood and femininity within the context of women becoming
In prolific language men lay waste the land
Tear it up with gunfire crash it with terror bury it under the dead
In the spiral of ages in the black winds of hatred love is too light. André Chedid Ceremonial of Violence (1976)
active in conflict; it explores to what extent women’s movements have been able to bridge the gaps of this divided society; and finally it poses the question of whether Lebanese women, through their involvement, have been able to shift into the public domain after the war and take up positions in business and politics. By discussing gender relations before the war; women’s roles in the civil war; their positions in family and religion, women’s education and employment; and finally their place in current day society undergoing national reconciliation, this chapter shows that fifteen years of civil war did not significantly change the situation. Although some women were actively involved in combat and in peace movements, and many more became the breadwinners, the war did not provide a springboard for female participation in politics. To the contrary, it will be argued here that the war in many ways served to reinforce the existing male-dominated social structure. Women remain confined by cultural traditions, Lebanese conceptions of womanhood and the divisions in Lebanese society which were present not only throughout the war but have continued during the current politics of transition. Thus, not unlike women in the Algerian war of liberation (Cooke 1993; Helie-Lucas 1988), or in the Iranian revolution (Azari 1983; de Groot 1996), Lebanese women subordinated the struggle for equality to the nationalist struggle, stating that the achievement of women’s rights had to be postponed (Karamé 1995:391). In practical terms this meant, for instance, that after laying down their arms Lebanese women until 1993 still required the signature of a male parent to obtain a passport or open a bank account. Moreover, Lebanese nationality still is only passed down through the father.
