The Revolution is a Woman
On October 17th 2019, protests erupted in Lebanon after a WhatsApp tax was announced by the government, a policy that further demonstrated the evergrowing mismanagement of the country by its rulers.
Although the uprising remains leaderless, women have been giving the revolution its tone by keeping it peaceful. Leading marches, organizing open-mics, setting up tents, holding meditation sessions, giving flowers to soldiers, forming human shields between protesters and riot police and calming agitators down are a few ways they have influenced the revolution.
Following other gender-equality movements worldwide, the revolution originally intended to fight the political elite turned itself into a space where Lebanese women are fighting for their place in a society which ranks 140th out of 149 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index 2018 by the World Economic Forum. Amongst their demands, is the implementation of a non-sectarian civil state abolishing the country’s current 15 different religions each having their separate personal status laws which, according to the Human Rights Watch, all discriminate women.