Women’s Role in the Islamic Resistance Media in Lebanon

Author

PhD in Sociology

Abstract

Lebanon has been considered a sample of Europe in the Middle East,
and it is surprising to have an Islamic resistance against Israel in this small modern
country. The Islamic Resistance was, at the beginning, portrayed as having a very
different ideology from that of the neighboring countries of the Middle East. This
Resistance was established on the basis of being a resistance model for the free
world, especially the Palestinians; women were the main partners in the resistance
especially in the media. Therefore, the resistance established three media forms:
radio, television, and newspaper, to work simultaneously with military resistance
operations. This could not have been achieved without the Lebanese women’s
support. Women in resistance media had a role of sustaining the resistance
when no one could help. In this article the focus is on this role after it has being
found out that there is not much study done about it, so we chose this topic to
highlight the importance of women in this field. In a country like Lebanon, the
appearance of veiled women on TV, was an opportunity to show that the veil is not
an obstacle to be active.
The article goes back to the history of Lebanon and has spoken about the many
resistance movements experienced in the Arab world showing the role of women in
these movements, with details about the role of women in the Lebanese resistance
and its media. Women’s participation in the Islamic resistance was an important
step forward in facing the Israeli aggressions against Lebanon to reach victory.
Developing a specialized media for the resistance was an important step
forward; first, in facing the Israeli as well as international media in which women
were the role models, and second, in showing the people of the region with different
ideologies the right side of the resistance, therefore winning acceptance and
respect for Islam and for Hijab.