The ‘voice of women in a turbulent world’, a Francophone day at the LU

On International Women’s Day and in collaboration with the French Cultural Mission in Lebanon and the Francophone University Agency, the Linguistics Department at the Lebanese University held a full Francophone day under the title, ‘The Voice of Women in a Turbulent World’. The event which comes as part of the francophone month organized by the state-run university, included interventions by Lebanese women authors who contributed to women struggles for their rights, with focus on domestic violence. In this respect, a round table was devoted to the discussion of a novel ‘Chez Nous C’etait Le Silence’ by the Lebanese-Canadian Rola Azar Douglas. The story portrays the tragic life of a young woman during the Lebanon war who is caught up between a cruel, violent and miser husband and her two children, added to them the war-related troubles. The author provides a detailed account of the relationship between the man and his wife and the physical violence and moral abuse by the husband over his wife and children. She points out to the powerlessness of battered women who are afraid to speak up about their terrible experiences because they are always hushed by what she termed as ‘obsolete’ social traditions. At the end, the main woman character has to leave her country as the only way to her salvage. Participants in the event praised the courage of Azar who succeeded in breaking up the silence and confronting social taboos. (L’Orient Le Jour, March 18, 2016)