Al Akhbar drew attention yesterday to a giant mural on a building in the Hamra neighborhood of Beirut created by artist, Roula Abda, named “I am a story”. The mural, which features, and is a tribute to late Lebanese novelist Emily Nasrallah and artist Hugette Caland, is, according to Abdo, a call for action for women to achieve a gender equal nation and inspires them to shape their own destinies. The work has been curated in coordination with the Art for Change association, Abdo revealed. Al Akhbar highlighted the career life of Nasrallah (1931-2018) as a lecturer, writer and women’s rights advocate who served as an original model of rebel women, that was seen then as bizarre and different from the decreed destiny of rural women. The newspaper also spotlighted the career path of Caland (1931-2019) whose paintings and artworks have appeared in international museums. Her erotic nude paintings reflected a feminist and revolutionary mindset since her first exhibition in Beirut in the early seventies of the past century. What brings Nasrallah and Caland together, Al Akhbar concluded, is their experimental and early struggle, each her own way, to urge women reclaim their freedom and life against authority and what it represents. The new work, to note, will join another giant mural in Hamra street, turning the latter into a visual celebration of three exceptional women experiences in the Lebanese art. (Al Akhbar, May 27, 2020)