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Why did Lebanon censor Oscar-winning film Spotlight?
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alaraby.co.uk

Spotlight, an Oscar-winning feature film telling the story of how journalists in the Boston Globe exposed priest sexual abuse in the United States, will not be shown in Lebanon.
While the film itself was not banned outright by Lebanon’s government censors, many suspect it is a case of self-censorship on the part of the distributors due to the "sensitive" topic of the film.
According to MARCH, a group that campaigns against censorship, film distributors in Lebanon told them it wouldn’t be worth showing the movie because of the controversy it would cause, and because the topic of child abuse by Catholic priests would be too sensitive to make it past the censors.

“Technically, the distributors performed an act of self-censorship,” Farah Wahab, a project coordinator at the group, told The Global Post.

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Saudi Arabia and Iran squabble over Lebanon
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The little guy gets hurt

AS SAUDI ARABIA and Iran jostle for power in the Middle East, Lebanon has managed to maintain an uncomfortable balance between the two. Saudi Arabia has long been chummy with Lebanon’s Sunni politicians and some of its Christians. Iran supports Lebanese Shia, not least through Hizbullah, a militia-cum-political party. It has also snuggled up to some Lebanese Christian groups. Nonetheless, an uneasy calm prevailed between Lebanon and the two regional powers. Apparently no longer.

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Lebanese army appoints new military intelligence chief
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Beirut: On the heels of recent disputes over the appointment of three officers to the Military Council, the Lebanese Minister of Defence Samir Moqbel approved the appointment of Brigadier General Camille Daher as the new head of Military Intelligence, to succeed General Edmond Fadel, whose term of office was extended for six months in September 2015.

The surprise announcement was a victory for Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji, whose retirement was postponed for one year until September 30, 2016, and who wanted Daher in the intelligence post. According to the generally well-informed Al Nahar daily that reported the news without providing any personal details on the contender, the decision was a purely military one based on merit, which upset the country’s political establishment that was prevented from interfering.

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Blood, sweat and tears: Maternal jus sanguinis in Lebanon During the first year of the Arab Uprisings, Lebanese women married to noncitizens reiterated claims they have been raising since the turn of the millennium for the right to give their nationality
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Blood, sweat and tears: Maternal jus sanguinis in Lebanon During the first year of the Arab Uprisings, Lebanese women married to noncitizens reiterated claims they have been raising since the turn of the millennium for the right to give their nationality to their children. The Lebanese nationality law, formed under French mandate rule in 1925, […]

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Lebanon struggles to help Syrian refugees with mental health problems
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By Dana Halawi

 

BEIRUT (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Syrian refugee Fatmeh fled to safety in Lebanon in 2011 after militants raided the family home, beat her up and tried to rape her. But her problems were far from over.

Two months after the attack Fatmeh – then aged about 12 – developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). "Her mental illness became obvious when she started walking down the streets while screaming and beating herself," said Lebanese psychotherapist Charelle Ghazal.

"She had regular nightmares of someone trying to rape her. She put knives under her pillow to protect herself. She was awake all night and slept during the day when her family was awake."

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Iran’s reformists won a huge victory in the country’s elections, but there’s a big catch
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Iran’s former Parliament speaker, Ali Akbar Nategh-Nouri.

Iran’s reformists are cheering the results of the Islamic Republic’s elections, held on Sunday in what was widely seen as a referendum on President Hassan Rouhani’s more moderate policies that have ushered in an opening with the West.

Final election tallies showed that candidates on the reformist ticket — who espouse a political movement aimed at changing Iran’s system to include more freedom and democracy — won 27% of the overall vote and gained roughly 30 parliamentary seats in the Tehran constituency, Reuters reported.

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