RDFL at the front lines of the Lebanese uprising

Joelle Abdulal

Advocacy Coordinator – RDFL

Our field and mountains are making the women and men” is part of an anthem, but it is not a detail that we insisted on reformulating to refuse to dissolve as women behind the walls of masculinity in this country and to erase our role from it. Apart through which we have redrawn the homeland we want, a country where discriminatory laws do not prevail over our rights, and equality between women and men is the basis for the beginning of the political and social change in it.

Not only is the momentum witnessed in the battlefields exceptional, but also the participation of women in a popular uprising to change social and political systems, it was a scene that the stereotype associated with women’s image and roles, in light of the prevailing patriarchal system and the male culture surrounding us.

During the uprising of October 17, 2019, women demonstrated that their voice is a revolution and that the revolution in Lebanon is a feminist one, in all its forms and features. Women succeeded in imposing themselves and their priorities in the Lebanese arenas, and in emphasizing their social and political role and struggle, and in reclaiming their rights as citizens The demands and issues long-held by women in their demonstrations like child marriage, the right to nationality and civil personal status laws were major causes present during the demonstrations.

Since the beginning of the uprising on October 17, women played leadership roles, they contributed to blocking the roads with their bodies and they stood straight in the face of the riot police where they were beaten and arrested and sang for the homeland in which they suffered discriminatory laws, against them and their children.

Members and employees of The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering – RDFL, participated were on the frontlines since the first day of the revolution, and played various roles, on top of which was a permanent presence on the ground and in the Revolution Squares, from Tripoli through Baalbek to Beirut and even Sidon, Tyre and Nabatieh to support women and raise public awareness about women’s rights and their role. A salute to all the women of Lebanon who believe in their role as citizens and are leading the change in order to overthrow the patriarchal-sectarian system and build a better future and homeland for all.