WOMEN, PEACE AND SECURITY:
LEBANON

"During the war in Lebanon, the role of women was of great importance. They were largely responsible for the subsistence of their families. Women who were withdrawn or displaced to suburbs and villages queued for gas, water and bread while men were forced to stay at home for fear to be kidnapped. So women left their houses to seek for work such as sewing, house-keeping and house-cleaning for absentee owners, etc."

Sawsan Mehdi, Society for the Protection of Nature

“Every single woman in the country was affected by the war. […] Women lost a brother, sister, son or daughter. Their men were dead, fighting, hiding or gone to work abroad, many never to return. […]“Despite all her sacrifices, the Lebanese woman’s self-confidence grew. […]Most women were involved in some organization or another. But it was not just charity work because all of a sudden, women had to know about everything and everything had become politicized: our education, our bread, our health, our home. Women became politically aware and at the same time developed the self- confidence to know that they could cope and achieve.”

Linda Mattar, President of the Women’s Council of Lebanon which groups 130 NGOs and resident of the Lebanese League of Women’s Rights

“He was taken right in front of me. I kept shouting that he was Lebanese and that I was told that all militiamen were allowing the Lebanese to cross.”

Khadijeh Wehbi, Lebanese woman, on the abduction of her son, 2000