Marcia Lynx Qualey

Literature The civil war — although it officially ended in 1990 — continues to preoccupy novelists, with new books set during war-time coming out every year. The renowned blogger 'ArabLit' looks back at how civil war shaped the Lebanese novel, and recommend 15 great books set just before, during, and after the war.

The 1960s brought changes to Lebanon and countries around the world, among these a mini-renaissance in Lebanese literary writing. “There was some kind of revival,” Lebanese novelist Rawi Hage said in a 2013 interview, “and a very progressive community…formed in Lebanon, mostly around the AUB area around Ras Beirut.”

It was an era of openness to world literature and formal experimentalism, with important work being done by authors Elias al-Diri and Youssef Habchi El-Achkar, among others. Publishing houses flourished. Books that couldn’t be printed in neighboring countries, for one reason or another, found their way to Lebanon.

by Anealla Safdar

Al Jazeera

A landmark ruling in Lebanon in favour of a transgender man is being celebrated as a leap towards equality, with hopes that discrimination towards the transgender community will ease given the subsequent positive media attention the case received.

In the mid-January ruling at the Court of Appeals in Beirut, Judge Janet Hanna confirmed the right of a transgender man to change his official papers, granting him access to necessary treatment and, importantly, privacy.

The decision marked the first time a Lebanese appeals court ruled specifically in support of transgender rights to treatment.

"The operation was a medical necessity to relieve him [the appellant] from his suffering that had been present throughout his life," the court said in its ruling.

Natasha Bertrand

In a Washington press conference shortly after peace talks over Syria's future fell apart earlier this week, US Secretary of State John Kerry again called on Syria's government and its supporters to end its military campaign and pursue a political solution to the conflict instead.

Days earlier, Gareth Bayley, the UK's special representative for Syria, told reporters in Geneva that "there is no military solution" to the conflict.

As the diplomats called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, however, pro-regime forces were encircling Aleppo — Syria's largest city — aided by heavy Russian airstrikes that are estimated to have killed scores of civilians. 

gulfnews.com

Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer

Beirut: Free Patriotic Movement leader and presidential hopeful Michel Aoun on Saturday reiterated his party’s alliance with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group, a day after a large Hezbollah delegation visited him.

The delegation on Friday included heavyweights such as Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s chief political assistant, Haj Hussain Khalil, security leader Wafiq Safa, Minister of Industry, Hussain Al Haj Hassan, and two politburo members, Mahmoud Qmati, and Mustafa Haj Ali.

During the meeting, Aoun did not appear to be happy as the group announced yet again it would be boycotting Monday’s scheduled session to elect a president.