Malak Alaywe Harz is the brave Lebanese woman who has been rightfully declared ‘the icon of the Lebanese revolution’ when she fearlessly defended herself against an armed bodyguard of an MP, the very first day of protests.
The reaction of Malak, kicking back the oppressor, back then became a symbol of the Lebanese Revolution, not only in Lebanon but farther across the diaspora.
That armed bodyguard had opened fire at the civilians protesting on the Ring Bridge, causing terror among the crowd.
This man working as a bodyguard to former minister of education Akram Chehayeb has turned out to be an army soldier.
Now, about four months later, Malak got summoned to the military court to be judged for her act of self-defense against a bodyguard/soldier who had gone out of control back then firing at civilians.
The news was just shared on Facebook by her husband, Mouhamad Herz, with the following caption: “The street [protests] went to rest, and the courts have started [taking action]. My wife got summoned to military court because of this picture.”
His message continues: “Welcome to the series of lawsuits; this is only the beginning. Keep your head up high, this is a lawsuit to be proud of.”
Noting that Mouhamad and Malak Herz had celebrated their wedding amid protesters during the revolution, there where the incident had occurred; the Ring bridge.
Both Malak and her husband are brave activists. They have been together since 2018 after meeting at a civil rights protest and have continued their fight together for a better Lebanon ever since.
They are both passionate about making positive changes, deeming their activism as a rightful stance of patriotism, hence it’s no surprise that they regard this lawsuit as an honor.
A pride, yes, yet tainted with pain at the idea that the country that they live in, that they are defending, and that they want to raise their children in, chooses to treat citizens in such a demeaning way.
Judging the oppressed for not bowing to the oppressor is, as we know, an act of oppression itself. That’s what the couple expressed when interviewed by Al Hadath shortly after the summoning of Malak to court.
During the interview, Mouhamad described Lebanon as a police state that oppresses people who speak up for their rights. He also described the lawsuit against his wife as a badge of honor.
“We refuse to be summoned by a military court for expressing ourselves and our needs,” he said.
He then went elaborating that the people in power are the ones who have dispersed and distracted the protests so they can begin with their series of lawsuits against the revolutionaries.
The unfortunate and bizarre thing, Herz said, is that the lawsuit came from the military court, which is in charge of judging soldiers and not the civilians. Mouhamad finished his talk by asking the Lebanese people to get back on the streets and demand the fall of the unjust government.
The same kind of lawsuit happened a while back. Nine Lebanese revolutionaries were prosecuted for defending themselves against MP Ziad Awad’s bodyguard and FPM supporters who had attacked protesters in Jounieh, Keserwan.
That’s in addition to several other protesters who were prosecuted for allegedly ‘provoking civil war and sectarian strife’, intentional fires, rioting, and sabotaging public properties.
Currently, the nation, both in Lebanon and in the diaspora, is questioning if lawsuits are going to be filed against the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people who have been protesting against exploitation, corruption, and hunger.
Are there enough prisons in Lebanon to hold the majority of the Lebanese population?
Guess the government is trying to find that out, because our prisons are already overloaded above capacity, another tragic crisis the Beirut Bar Association is trying to attend to since the independent nonpartisan Melhem Khalaf was elected to head the association.
