The Thesis Proposal Zombie

As mentioned before, I decided to delay my thesis by a semester, which means that, while most of my friends have just submitted their theses to the university library and are now dusting off their party clothes and ready to celebrate the rebirth of their social lives, I am still in the throes of working on my thesis proposal.

For those who are interested, my research will deal with the political gender quota debate in Lebanon, and I plan on interviewing relevant activists, politicians, NGOs, etc. to analyze the obstacles/enabling factors for gender quotas in Lebanon, and whether they are a policy worth pursuing. Some professors have told that this research is relevant and timely, and it's nice knowing that some people find my research topic interesting.

But let's be honest, I am not handling the stress of academic research very gracefully. I keep waiting for someone to discover that I am a fraud with a minimal grasp of political theory who is just in the master's biz for the visa.

Views of Beirut, 2012

As I was gazing through the bus window at the Beirut cityscape one afternoon, I realized how this place never ceases to charm me. There is something about Beirut, a beauty that is neither quite slick nor gritty, but is nevertheless there, and undeniably so. The elegant balcony railings, the rebellious graffiti, the colorful shutters, and this omnipresent warm yellow, coating the walls of so many buildings.

I haven't been very good at posting pictures on this blog. I actually haven't been very good at taking pictures, period. But here are a few I took last year, mostly in the neighborhood of Hamra and nearby. I have since then moved to the east side of Beirut, and hopefully I'll take the time to capture some more views of the city.

Manara

A Season of Goodbyes

While spring has only indecisively tiptoed its way back to Beirut, the end of the school year is already inching closer, which means the inevitable graduation of the class with whom I began this master's degree endeavor. I would have been one of them, if I wasn't willingly delaying my thesis for a myriad of reasons—not least of which my desire to stay in Lebanon for as long as possible.

The ebb and flow of arrivals and departures in Beirut seems to follow a migration pattern mirroring the academic calendar. And while I have already seen some very dear friends leave Lebanon in the past year and a half, the next two months are filled with the exodus of many people I have grown to care about since I have come here.

I have come to the strange realization of how fragile the social nest I have built here can be, and how unwittingly reliant it has been on people who have always meant to leave, at some point or another.

On banning "Arab Spring" from your vocabulary

No one can tell how Arab, Spanish or American you are behind a Guy Fawkes mask.
Photo found on The Examiner.

I know what you're thinking, and yes, you're about to sit through another one of my rants. (It's still not too late to close the tab.)

One of the things that irk me when reading the news (and you must be aware by now that many things irk me) is this easy turn of phrase to summarize just about everything going on in the region for the past two years: the "Arab Spring." Here is my case for why you should stop using this term once and for all.

The Confused Wayward Orientalist

La mort de Sardanapale by Eugène Delacroix, or
Sensual Oppressed Ladiez and Violent Menz: the Middle East in a Nutshell, Y'all!

As many of you might know, my life calling is to scour the Internet for articles and cute animal pictures. And one of my favorite things to do—besides showing dog photos to my roommate to try and convince her that we should get a pet—is to become overly aggravated about offensive articles on a) women and b) the Middle East. Articles about idiotic Republican policies are a close third... and often tied to the two aforementioned topics.

For example, this perfect illustration of modern-day Orientalism is the sort of news that will send me down an inevitable spiral of angry ranting ("An Oriental adventure"? "The history and the culture of the region"? Monolithism much??? ARGH MY BLOOD PRESSURE).

But of course, not all articles on the region fall into the sort of oversimplifications barely worth the exertion of rolling one's eyes. Much of the news coming out of the Arab world deals with death, destruction and oppression, as if nothing positive and empowering ever came out of the Middle East. The early days of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions* might have been a short truce, if only because the Western media thought this meant the whole Middle East was going to become more like "us."

I have written in the past about my fear that, by writing this blog, I would either contribute to the vast canon of negative clichés on Lebanon and the Middle East, or go too far in the other direction and gloss over the problematic aspects of Middle Eastern cultures. This has led to numerous occasions when my feminist and anti-colonialist/orientalist beliefs have felt at odds.

The shameful case of Georges Abdallah

"Free Georges"—Protester at the French embassy in Beirut. Photo from assawra.info.

For the past two weeks, the usually bon chic bon genre neighborhood surrounding the French embassy in Beirut has gone through quite a makeover. Graffiti has covered every nook and cranny of the once pristine walls. A tent set up across the street from the embassy hosted keffieh-clad protesters day and night who demanded one thing: the liberation of Georges Abdallah.

For the past 28 years, Georges Abdallah has been rotting in prison in France for a crime he most likely did not commit.

Personal evolutions on Palestine

Across the border from Palestine

This reflection has been brought about, of course, by the landslide vote at the UN General Assembly to grant Palestine the status of "observer state." But most of all, this has been influenced by the recent attack on Gaza. The terrible images and news coming from the Strip were harrowing—I am haunted by these photos of the howling pain of grieving fathers.

I have considered myself to be a supporter of the Palestinian cause for a long time. But there is a specific privilege that comes with supporting the abstract notion of the rights of a given people from thousands of miles away. The privilege of oversimplification, of even-handed assignment of blame, and most of all, the privilege of being able to shut out information whenever needed or desired.

Coming to Lebanon hasn't completely taken that privilege away from me, but the consequences of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become realer to me—and the implications of my opinions, inescapable.