10+ Features That Make Lebanese Women Stand Out
We've heard it all on social media when it comes to comments about Lebanese Women, the good and the bad, the right and the false, and some even unduly offensive. Time has come for us to take a stand in that regard, and speak up on behalf of our women, and we'll do so with unrefutable valid arguments to tell you who we really are.
Via Wael Hamzeh / EPA
Let's clarify a point first. It's 2019, the era of freedom to be who we are and who we seek to evolve into. In countries around the world, that freedom comes with its own terms and its own extent, some more, some less, and some barely there, depending on the country and its culture.
In the environment we live in, Lebanon has as well its own set of limitations, and our stance as local women has been set to break through these obstacles that have been impeding us to evolve to the best of who we can be. The way we do it, though, as Lebanese women, differentiates us from most countries, just because we stand in honoring our identity.
Because of our regional environment, the world has come to assume these past decades that Lebanese women are weak and submissive, just because our country is niched in the Middle-East and influenced by the surrounding culture. We, as well, have come to believe that very little -or nothing at all- has been done for our freedom and rights. Yet, a legacy has been transmitted to us by our mothers and grandmothers who weren't as idle as generally assumed.
Via The961
They did work to progress our society since the past century, and they did it with grace. They did pave the way for us while raising us to be our own women with our own uniqueness and cultural heritage.
The point here is not about bragging, far from it. It is about clearing off misconceptions and responding to offensive comments on social media that Lebanese women are all about "silicon and fakeness."
Nothing can be more untrue, and we state it with all confidence. While we do appreciate beauty in all its forms and we do maintain certain aesthetic values, our uniqueness as Lebanese women is not set on that quest at all, and we have strong valid arguments to counter that assumption.
So, the question here is: How do we define that uniqueness? Let's break it down in a few factual points:
#1 - Lebanese Women Are Strong
Via Women in Leadership
Lebanon has a long history of survival throughout foreign dominations, famine, family displacements, and also wars and resistance. Homes and hearts lived their shares of destruction and losses, whether in recent history or throughout all of it.
Our women, these valiant Lebanese mothers, had to stand strong throughout, seeing their sons to wars, praying their nights away for their safety, dealing with the losses of those who never returned home, and keeping their household together whatever what.
#2 - Lebanese Women Are Family-Oriented
Via Special Magazine
These mothers of ours, the pillars of our society and the ensurers of the perpetuation of our nation, also carry the household on their back. Culturally and traditionally, the daily management and care of a Lebanese household is a woman's responsibility. And Lebanese mothers do it so well while raising their children to be the best they could be in life. While we heartfully salute our fathers for their important family role, it is our mothers who keep the family together on a daily basis.
Being family-oriented is one of the strongest characteristics of Lebanese women, a value rooted in various entrenched factors that form who we are of a nation: culture, religions, and traditions. Our women live primarily for their family, whether mothers, sisters, and daughters, and whether professional women; family is always their priority.
#3 - Lebanese Women Are Smart
Via Daily Mail
Whether by genes or by the legacy of millennia of survival, Lebanese women are smart and maintain themselves well informed and up to date on pertinent and general knowledge. There is a sharpness in them in understanding life situations and interactions, and in having their own analysis on local and world's topics. They can engage at length in all conversations and put forward their own mind.
Moreover, Lebanese women make their way through their life, education, work, and ambitions, fully aware that there are gender-discrimination barriers, relatively hard to break in their country. Yet that doesn't deter them to stand up and keep moving towards their goals.
#4 - Lebanese Women Are Highly Educated