‘Gina’s World’ ties the high prevalence of plastic surgery in Lebanon to stereotypes

Al Hayat daily covered in its issue of yesterday, a program presented by a Swedish-Palestinian woman, on SVT TV Group in Sweden, which focused on the phenomenon of plastic surgery common among Lebanese women. The program’s anchor Gina Dirawi headed to Beirut to interviewplastic surgeon Doctor Hratch Zaghbazarian who linked the phenomenon people’s interpretation of beauty. Dr a Zaghbazarian added that contrary to the common perceptions of people in the West, “people here in Lebanon consider face wrinkles as a negative indicator of aging”, adding that in order to be “loved and accepted by others, one strives to always look young and wrinkle-free”. Dirawi also pointed out to special banking loans for plastic surgery that encourage women to undertake such operations, and noted additional social factors that promoted this phenomenon, particularly emulation and a deeply-rooted desire of Middle Eastern women to satisfy their partners. (Al Hayat, September 10, 2015)