Writings

"This presentation [First presented at "My Rights to My City" Workshop, Alexendria, Egypt, Nov. 2000] will address the issue of identity, national, cultural or otherwise, through the eerie parallel between the gradual destruction of the country's physical form and the gradual abstraction of the National Currency's design."

"First presented at "My Rights to My City" Workshop, Alexendria, Egypt, Nov. 2000"

The author tells about her adullt life as an active militant during the Civil War in Lebanon.

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°17 - 1996

"..on humanity's search for roots and belonging, the two ubiquitous criteria for social stratification: age and gender, the post-industrial revolution that will inevitably transform the concept of social class, the Internet, Television, blind nationalist as another refuge for identity, Cultural independence, and finding identity in Religion, Sports, Reference groups and communities, concluding by saying that "Consumer culture provides a sense of sharing and anonymity"."

"The Mediteranean was, for centuries, a center for universal civilization that has given birth to religious and judicial systems, as well as the center of an important commercial and maritime network. But the cosmopolitan way of life is dying in Mediterranean cities such as Beirut and Sarajevo."

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°10 - 1994

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°49 - 2004

The Lebanese confessional communities have known centuries of more or less equality between citizens under the Ottoman Empire. But this coexistence was destroyed through the decline of the Empire . . Community problems that are still present until today provoking crisis in the Lebanese community system.

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°4 - 1992

"Discussing identity in Lebanon goes down to discussing community. Because the Lebanese, as a whole, have not defined yet their community personal identity, and that, since the building of Greater-Lebanon, proclaimed on September 1st, 1920 by the French chief in command in the Levant, General Henri Gouraud. The Lebanese war that broke off in 1975 must have been in a way the violent, absolute, irrational but also logical expression of this search for an identity."

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°6 - 1993

"At the present time, one only conceives the reconstruction in Lebanon as linked to architectural modernity. This modernity must be defined in a specifical context which is the Beirut town in relation ton the internal dynamic forces of the country. If this reconstruction appears to be necessary and indispensable. It brings out a number of problems particularly concerning the preservation of the heritage. Can't one build accordingly to the new technologies without breaking from the Lebanese traditions and the city's memory? Re-establish a certain balance in orde to combining tradition and modernity?"

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°24 - 1997-98

"Mai Ghoussoub tells about political posters in Lebanon showing photos of candidates to elections, highlighting the following points : "Elections are not always about politics", "Lebanon as a republican fraternity?", "The various tales of masculinity"."

"It took me a long time to understand why my mother loved to tell the story of the doctor who delivered me. Whenever there was a willing audience, she would tell it. I must have heard it a thousand times. For her story to make sense, you need to know that I am the second female born to my parents and that my sister and I are their only progeny."

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°42 - 2002

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°47 - 2003

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°47 - 2003

"It is difficult to describe the anticipation and apprehension I felt at the prospect of visiting Egypt for the first time after 37 years. Egypt: a place I often referred to, every time I filled out a form requiring date and place of birth, but never really thought about otherwise. And yet, I have not had the luxury of not having to think about who I am in terms of identity. I realize that we are more than the sum of our parts. The issue does not trouble me now as much as it intrigues me."

"Cairo, January 3, 2002, United Press International"

"If the below article was an item of clothing it would be akin to the snood, if it were an accessory it would be a scrunchi (hideous elasticated hairband) or some other fade that captures the mood of the moment, and dates in a cringingly spectacular fashion. It would be the item of clothing that you would really love to throw away but somehow you hold on to it in case it comes back into fashion as nue retro or because your attached to it for its ability to pull you back to an exact moment when things were different somehow. I wrote in following my departure to London from Beirut at a time when I was celebrating the fact that my surname suddenly didn't matter and I could feel the first flush of independence... "

"Looking back now, It seems ironic that it was an institution like Tele Liban that initially seduced me to stay in Beirut and that same institution that played a huge part in my reason to leave Beirut. After Seven years of head banging, even the most resilient lover is pulled away from that which was previously seductive. Allow me to refresh our collective memories. . "

"Mahmoud Darwish's "Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982" can be read as a story of language discovering itself in the midst of the Israeli siege of Beirut in 1982. This involves an exploration of language as a "transgressive experience" of writing and reading, whereby language is creatively and critically experienced as a dense texture of conflictual impulses and developing residues."

"Lebanon that succeded in reuniting in peace sixteen communities was torn by war in 1975. Beirut particularly became a synonym of fear, destruction and the most murderous civil violence. At this stage, can one still talk about women during these years of war independently from identity? Did solidarity between these women occur independently from community divisions?"

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°17 - 1996

"If emigration was always a big part in the lives of the Lebanese people since the 19th century, 1975's war turned the statistics upside down and disrupted the myth of the "traveller at heart"."

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°5 - 1992-93

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°47 - 2003

French periodical 'Confluences Méditerranée' N°47 - 2003

"An article on the AUB collection of political posters in the Arab World, from Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon, works of art as much as a medium of propaganda and medium of public debate especially at times of war."

"An article on the intellectual creativity in Lebanon that has been witnessing a resurgence since the civil war's end, thanks to the healthy artistic environment that is bringing together diverse forms of writing, images, urban spaces, subjectivity, daily life, ideas of change, friendship and exchange."

"Starting with the statement that "cities are the most significant repositories of identity", this article is about the therapeutic role of urbanism -"often misused, the decision makers often opting for the easy erasure of the traces of conflict, while designers often opt for a fetishization of the same traces" relatively to post-war city reconstruction and the notion of memory "which should not be eradicated because this would induce a form of civic amnesia". According to the authors, "therapeutic urbanism may heal on the level of the individual, of the citizen/user, and on that of the urban fabric."

"First published in ARCHIS Magazine, Netherlands, #4, 2003, pp. 60-68."

"An article on the life of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon camps, twenty years after 800 to 2000 of them were massacred, on September 16th, 1982."

"An article on the life of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon camps, twenty years after 800 to 2000 of them were massacred, on September 16th, 1982."

"An article on "Ajram beach for ladies": a beach in Lebanon reserved for women who won't "unveil" in the presence of men."

"An article on "Ajram beach for ladies": a beach in Lebanon reserved for women who won't "unveil" in the presence of men."

An article highlighting the problems relative to the issue of the non-existence of any reference to the Civil War in Lebanese school History manuals.

An article highlighting the problems relative to the issue of the non-existence of any reference to the Civil War in Lebanese school History manuals.