"In countries like ours, women enter politics in mourning clothes."
Christian opposition MP Nayla Moawad, who made the comment, is one of a few women running for a seat in Lebanon's male-dominated parliament.
She was propelled onto the tribal political scene by the 1989 murder of her husband, president Rene Moawad.
Most female candidates for the four-stage polls that open May 29 are, like Moawad, linked to male political figures.
Bahia Hariri, who will be running for the fourth time in south Lebanon, is the sister of Rafiq Hariri, the five-time former reformist prime minister murdered last Feb. 14.
A UN goodwill ambassador and respected activist who has devoted her life to improving women's conditions in Lebanon and other Arab countries, Hariri, 53, insists on introducing herself as "the sister of the martyr."
Ghinwa Jallul, a professor of computer sciences, ran for parliament for the first time in 2000 on Hariri's ticket in Beirut and is competing again as a candidate for the late premier's Future Bloc.
"I have no political heritage. I came from a pragmatic background," the 42-year-old and mother of three told reporters in her family home as her nine-year-old sought her attention and permission to go out play with friends.
Three months after Hariri's death, Bahia and Ghinwa still wear black clothes in sign of mourning in keeping with tradition, although as women they have long broken ranks with the conservative ways of their country.
Along with Moawad, they are stalwarts of the anti-Syrian opposition which, along with international pressure, helped drive Syrian troops from Lebanon last month.
They are the only three women deputies in the outgoing 128-seat parliament.
All are widely expected to be re-elected, and will likely be joined by Solange Gemayel, widow of slain president and former Christian warlord Bashir Gemayel, who was killed in an explosion in 1982.
A newcomer to politics, Gemayel is running uncontested for the Maronite seat in Beirut, on the list of Saad Hariri, the slain ex-premier's son.
"We hope the Lebanese will become again Lebanese. We hope to put the past behind us," she said.
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
‘ABSURD MISTAKE’: The election commission said that there had been a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations ran short of ballot papers South Korean riot police yesterday cleared protesters from a Seoul polling station after a 35-hour blockade sparked by a shortage of ballot papers during local elections earlier this week. Wednesday’s election was the first nationwide vote since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office following the ouster of Yoon Suk-yeol over his short-lived martial law declaration. Lee’s ruling Democratic Party swept most races, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat. The South Korean National Election Commission apologized, blaming a failure to anticipate turnout after 14 polling stations in Seoul ran short of ballot papers. Some polling stations stayed open until 10pm to
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS