Breakdown of Lebanese reaction to tits: Liberals Vs. Conservatives.

"إذا خسرنا الحرب لا غرابه
لأننا ندخلها..
بمنطق الطبلة والربابه"
 نزار قباني

Our country is torn apart by a dichotomy. That has already been established and understood by the enlightened few who dare to see the many sides to every story. I think those people make less than 5% of the total population. That is an arbitrary number and being a physician in training, I learned to base my facts on evidence and evidence alone. Therefore, in no way am I claiming the following post as a fact, it is just my view of the current situation based on personal observations.  

In the past 24 hours, Lebanese social media and websites were invaded by pictures, videos and articles regarding Lebanon's olympics contestant Jackie Chamoun posing topless in a photo shoot 3 years ago. As would happen with every single Lebanese controversy (yes by the way this is a controversy), no one took a middle stance, everybody had a firm, unchangeable opinion and they were in no way reluctant to share it all over the internet. I found myself bombarded by the “conservatives” calling this a shameful misrepresentation of Lebanon and another proof of how Lebanon lost its holly values. On the other hand, the “liberals” turned the girl into a national hero and reloaded their usual speech against Lebanese government and medieval thinking. I frankly do not think anyone has to the right to judge her for doing whatever she wants with her body, however please note that even the "mighty" west has disqualified contestants over the years for past nude pictures resurging once they held an important position. Here I cite how Vanessa Williams had to step down from the Miss America title in 1984 after nude photos from her past were published. I don’t care why Jackie did it what she did. She has the right to do with her body as she pleases but she should be able to stand up for her actions which is exactly what she did today without having us use her as a weapon in our attack on a “traditional” Lebanon. Yes I am myself a liberal and I hate our corrupt system as much as anyone else but this really is not the battle you want to fight the system with. There are many more important topics to tackle in light of recent events. 

Now that I have gotten your attention with tits, off to what this article is really all about: Manal Assi.  Remember her? Maybe not? It’s probably because of something called sensationalism, an extremely common practice in Lebanon. Nizar Kabbani’s quote above makes perfect example of this. We like big shows and stories that grab everyone’s animal instinct for a couple of hours. We use it to get attention on facebook or to feel that we belong to a community that condemns and celebrates small problems and smaller achievements while the big picture fades away.No issue lasts longer than a week because in a country where the civil war was never really resolved, it is in its people's best interest to forget.

Anyway, Manal had her 15 minutes of fame posthumously a couple of days back. She is, no she WAS a 33 year old mother of 2 who was battered by her husband. He then called her mother and sister and locked them in the house with her as she silently drifted to meet her maker. Did you remember her yet?  Well who cares about that now, there were no tits involved, Manal could not possibly be an interesting topic to discuss in nightclubs or at parties, the very disturbing story is just too hardcore for our “liberals” to discuss. By the way, what is a Liberal again? Please do remind me. I can’t seem to grasp your definition. Is being a liberal about the alcohol, smoke and music? Because I always believed it was about the freedom of thought and philosophy. Although I am a big fan of Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist and LIBERAL, I seem to have missed the chapter on liberalism being directly related to objectification of women. Another chapter I have missed is how domestic violence is not an act against feminism. How can the news of a woman battered to death not make it into most of my Facebook friends wall while tits do. In fact most of both people attacking and protecting Jackie have one thing in common: they both zapped the TV remote control on Manale’s case but were appalled or amazed by Jackie.

Now it is up to you to choose if you want to join the 10% camp or stay where you are, that doesn't matter to me because i honestly do not care where you people stand on tits, but I think it is about time for you to move and mobilize so that we can finally pressure the government to issue an act against domestic violence. This will be the cornerstone in a series of decisions to implement protective laws for women rights, because once these are finally respected, then there would be exposed tits for all of you to argue over.