Lebanon has different faces. Not only those of the Maronite Christians of the Mount Lebanon towns, the Sunnis of Old Tripoli, or the Shia communities of the Southern coastal harbours. There is not only a cultural or religious multiple spectrum of identities in the country of cedars. There is also...

A woman with a pink cloth wrapped around her head climbs out of a window on the fourth floor of a residential building. She peers at the ground far below, clutching onto the window ledge as voices in the background yell at her to come inside. Instead, she jumps, her scream lingering for four seconds before she hits the ground.

It is impossible to talk about gender these days without using specific terminology designed to liberate those of us that have been marginalised by a normative binary gender regime. As much as I benefit from the space of liberation that has been created, this new language is itself a kind of new regime under whose nouns all narratives rally for legitimacy, and inevitably succumb to its tropes. Mashallah News

Lebanese journalist Sami Halabi traces the construction of his gender identity. Growing up as a boy in Lebanon means being socialized into a hyper-masculine gender model, that nurtures vertical male power structures and blocks social change. Becoming aware of this hidden mechanism is the first step to attempt alternative behaviours and initiate change. As many young men are starting to do, thanks also to the wealth of information provided through the web. Frame

Lebanon, a Country at the crossroads of cultural and intellectual traits, has long been characterised by migration. But in spite of this cross-cultural element – what many would say is an intrinsic part of Lebanese society – there is xenophobia. A photographic project realized by the Nigerian-Libanese Nisreen Kaj analyzed this phenomena. (Ebticar/Marshallah News)

In Beirut, near the refugees’ camp of Shatila where hundreds of Syrians live together with more than 9.000 Palestinians, a laboratory of embroidery helps women escaped from war to find themselves. A female community, created by young exiled syrians, to encourage creativity and solidarity. (Ebticar/Mashallah news)

Exhibition space closed during civil war to reopen, 40 years later.

On the 30th anniversary of the Sabra and Chatila massacre, it is worth rereading Jean Genet’s song to the beauty of revolutionaries.

There is a trio of widely used languages in Lebanon: Arabic, French and English. Many use them: simultaneously and interchangeably, switching mid-sentence. Mashallah News spoke to LAU professor Rula Diab about one of her specialities: the Lebanese language mix.

These changes will surely affect the Hezbollah’s positions and achievements in Lebanon as well as in the rest of the Arab world until the Syrian regime on which it has placed its hopes, expires.

Conflict between the two generations remains: the one that believes it has “made history” and the other in which the whole world sees the “makers of the future

Borrowing the slogan “The people want…” from the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, the young Lebanese started their campaign to bring sectarianism down.

The Arab and global audience witnessed in recent months massive pitched battles in the central squares of the region’s capital cities. Capturing and defending urban space has emerged as the most effective way to unseat a despot; each revolution and protest movement has become nearly synonymous with the urban space it has occupied and spread from.

The Arab Image Foundation is a non-profit organization established in Beirut in 1997 with the mission to collect, preserve and study photographs from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab diaspora.

Love, respect, forgiveness. Principles that sound like three absolute necessities for a country like Lebanon ravaged as it has been and as it still is. Principles applied by the Offre Joie Association working to “gather the Lebanese family”.

“Civil courage is necessary to construct memory”. Overview of Umam Association, a citizen adventure with a crucial and ambitious objective for Lebanon: “a national project for the future”.

Memory and History outline a fiery step of two in the streets and squares of Downtown Beirut, in front of a jury of young Lebanese. Viewpoints.

Nearly 20 years after the end of civil war in Lebanon, there is still no memorial to honour more than 200 000 dead and 70 000 missing that it has caused.

Culture Resource and the European Cultural Foundation are to hold the first conference on cultural policies in the Arab world in cooperation with the Doen Foundation and the British Council. The conference will take place in Beirut on Monday the 7th and Tuesday the 8th of June.

Call for films open to participate to the Ayam Beirut Al Cinama’iya festival for independent cinema and video production from the Arab World. Deadline: 10th of June 2010

Bipod: neither iPod nor biped, this name sounds like the one of a robot from Star Wars, and yet! The so called event is exactly the opposite of all automatism: Bipod is a contemporary dance festival born in Beirut in 2007; a revolution for the world of arts in the Middle East.

A feeling of helplessness and torment hovers at the heart of Lebanese youth. Disorientated, youngsters oscillate between worry and hope.

Amalgamation of cultures and mentalities, the young people of the Cedar trees’ country distinguish themselves by their confessional, social and geographic diversity.

Dahiye: the word seems to drain a lot of stigmatisation. In Arabic, the word simply stands for “suburb”. In Lebanon, it designates the southern suburbs of the capital city. Its connotation is all but friendly.

«Behind The Doors» is the title of an exhibition of photos by ten women, survivors of violence, result of a workshop directed by the photographer Dalia Khemissi.