Stories about Lebanon
Beirut: a taste of crisis through a cup of coffee
With the local currency losing nearly 95% of its value, large segments of the Lebanese population plunged into poverty, reflected in Hamra, once a busy boulevard and now a ghost-town.
A century of Etel Adnan: a mountain who leaves behind mountains
With colourful palettes, careful strokes and moving poetry, mountains were sensual beings in Adnan's artwork, regarded in confluence with the skies and earth, erupting in volcanoes.
Arab content creators use social media to talk about sex, sexuality and reproductive health
'If we continue to avoid these conversations and to treat sexual education like a taboo, we are, in fact, only harming those that we are trying to protect.'
‘Stop silencing MENA critical voices,’ say activists in open letter to Twitter and Facebook
A decade after uprisings heavily relied on social media to topple dictators across the region, human rights defenders denounce these platforms' discrimination against voices of dissent still fight for freedoms.
Lebanon protests: Authorities prey on digital spaces to silence criticism
While social media and WhatsApp have been extensively leveraged by demonstrators to organize, document, and sprawl the protest, Lebanese authorities have resorted to identifying and persecuting dissidents.
Surveillance in Lebanon: A crisis of privacy
Intrusions on citizens’ privacy in Lebanon are pervasive and often conducted without proper judicial oversight.
Abused and infected with COVID-19, Nigerian domestic workers are stranded in Beirut
African governments must press on their Lebanese counterpart to grant amnesty to all migrant domestic workers to be repatriated to their home countries and abolish the slave-like Kafala labour laws.
Protest art in the streets of Tripoli: An interview with Lebanese artist Batool Jacob
Batool Jacob paints on topics related to the Lebanese protests through a feminist and libertarian lens.
Harrowing tales from African domestic workers in Lebanon
African domestic workers are essentially slaves in the Gulf and Arab countries, under the Kafala sponsorship system that allows this exploitation and abuse to continue.
Migrant workers face racism and rampant human rights violations across the Gulf
Migrant workers in the Gulf region are being subjected to a fierce campaign calling for their deportation that is riddled with racist speeches and hatred.
Impoverished youth in the Middle East turn to cheap — sometimes deadly — alcohol
When large-scale alcohol poisoning outbreaks occur, they make the news in the Middle East, but where is the political will to tackle this sensitive and controversial issue?
Information warfare: COVID-19’s other battleground in the Middle East
As leaders vie to frame narratives and control public opinion on COVID-19, social media is a battlefield where influencers, trolls, bots, and commenter armies fight for influence and power.
Fighting COVID-19 goes hand-in-hand with shuttering newspapers across the Middle East
As part of their measures to counter COVID-19, Jordan, Oman, Morocco, the UAE and Yemen, have all banned print newspapers until further notice.
In Lebanon, journalists and activists who cover protests face threats
Media professionals have raised their voices against the use of excessive force against them while they are trying to cover the mass protests.
Carlos Ghosn's great escape embarrasses Japanese government
The Japanese government has been embarrassed as details of Ghosn's escape expose systemic shortcomings in the country's police and prosecution services, the judicial system, passport security and more.
Beirut demonstrations honored in a map showing protest as a process of live ‘city-making’
“Maps are important additions to the visual "magma" we're being exposed to because they allow us to summarize, reflect and put things in perspective."
Netizen Report: How are protests in Lebanon affecting digital rights?
Protests continue in Lebanon, phone service is back in Kashmir (but the internet is still down) and Egyptians are getting censored on Twitter.
Talking trash: Lebanese citizens continue to mobilize to solve the garbage crisis
A solution for Lebanon’s garbage problem is yet to be made after the government held off on a decision to build incinerators during talks that took place within Beirut.
Inside the Lebanese campaign to stop a World Bank-funded dam project
An anti-dam project campaign is trying to "contest the World Bank's ill-advised and destructive water policies in Lebanon."
In landmark decision, Lebanese military court rules that homosexuality is not a crime
The good news was soon tempered by the fact that the army is seeking to appeal the court so that the four individuals are charged with crimes.
Facing targeted attacks, Yemen's Christian minority struggles to survive
"Galileo" is a Yemeni who converted to Christianity three years ago. He's been arrested and tortured, and is now living in fear for his life.
