Window dressing Lebanon as a country of culture and freedom is a costly and complicated illusion that is perhaps best illustrated by these cases in point:
On the afternoon of June 30, a bulldozer moved into the archeological site where Al Amine Mosque at Martyr’s Square is to be built. Phoenician, Roman and Islamic ruins that had been excavated by a team of archeologists were destroyed and disposed of at the Normandy dump and other sites. Inma (Social and Cultural Development Association), which has been photographing the finds throughout the year, wrote to An Nahar and the newspaper published the first photo of the destruction on July 1, followed by another on July 2. This prompted Minister of Culture Aridi, at the urging of Frederick Husseini, the director of the General Directorate of Antiquities, to meet with Mufti Qabbani and Nabil Hariri of OGER, the contracting company. On July 3, Minister Aridi notified An Nahar that the Mufti had signed a written declaration promising to halt the destruction and preserve what remained of the ruins.

Now this is a perfect Lebanese scenario. The Inma staff can walk proud with the other players, claiming that once they learned about the tragedy they had it stopped. It is in no one’s interest to say that the approximately 1,000m2 significant archeological find was totally destroyed and only 20% was saved. Forget this “little” detail. Civic society (NGOs and journalists), the public sector (Department of Antiquities), the private sector (OGER) and the religious authorities (Dar al Ifta’a) have all ‘in partnership’ saved an archeological site! Let us celebrate our cultural heritage! (Applause)

The play takes on a new twist – from archeology to Lebanon’s personal status laws, the subject of our lead story. Civil marriage is not permitted in Lebanon and even within the Christian sects, intermarriage requires ‘clearance’ from the church. A Christian man cannot legally marry a Muslim woman while the opposite is allowed, in spite of any Qoranic verses to that effect. A Sunni is bound by different inheritance laws than a Shiia or a Christian, and the list is endless. But free we are; a Shiia is permitted a “marriage of pleasure” (Muta’a) and a Sunni a “marriage of convenience” (Misyar) but they cannot be married by a “justice of the peace.” A Sunni without a son and with only daughters at risk of being deprived of their full inheritance can convert to the Shiia sect to protect the children’s rights and yet remain a Sunni for employment and social and electoral purposes, such as running for a Sunni parliamentary seat. A Maronite can convert to Islam to divorce and still be accepted by his community, which normally shudders at the thought, but accepts it as realpolitik. As for civil marriage, Cyprus and Turkey are nearby. Let us celebrate our freedom! (Applause)

In an area where the gods and goddesses of love, wine, beauty, rain and wisdom roamed the prairies and sailed the seas, established a law school, pottery shops and myths of everlasting beauty and defiance, people are still not free to love, marry, divorce and die as they please. Nor are they free to preserve their heritage. It was the eminent An Nahar columnist, the late Michel Abou Jaoude, who commented that Lebanon’s political and social stage would be an amusing and interesting one, were it not for the bloodshed of every decade…and the continuous deterioration of its historical treasures and social values, he could have added. Thus goes the bloody confessional dance, sweeping away personal freedom, integrity and antiquities. The underlying premise is the same: hypocrisy and pretense. In the case of Lebanon’s archeological treasures, we destroy them and pretend to be cultured; and in the case of our personal status laws, people are suffocated with restrictions while pretending to be “free.” The culprit, as usual, is power and greed sugar-coated by religion and wrapped in the illusion of culture. Let us celebrate…over the grave of Berytus.

Jawad Adra