Protesters gathered in front of Saida's public beach on May 21, 2023, after four beach-goers were harassed last week. (Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Opposing groups protested Sunday morning in front of Saida’s public beach, amid dozens of security officers deployed at the scene, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the south reported. One group of protesters, comprising feminist groups and activists, called for women's freedom to choose their beachgoing attire, while the opposing group called for “modesty and virtue against nudity.”
The protest comes after two religious sheikhs, accompanied by their supporters, approached a pair of couples at the beach on May 14 and asked them to leave, saying the two women were "indecently" attired. The beachgoers said the sheikhs' group had thrown tennis balls, plastic bottles of water and sand at them.
According to our correspondent, a feminist activist was injured at the beginning of Sunday's protest “due to provocation between the two parties.” Two members of the opposing group of protesters were also wounded, and at least one person has been arrested, our correspondent added.
Some protesters from opposing camps tried initiating a peaceful debate, but policemen told them to stop, our correspondent at the scene reported.
In a poster circulating online since Friday, feminist groups and activists called for a rally and a press conference to be held Sunday at 11 a.m.
However, security forces and Saida’s municipal police banned the groups from holding these events near the beach because “it is still closed to the public,” Mohammad Saoudi, the mayor of Saida said in a statement.
A protester holds sign that reads "The bikini has been made in 1930." (Courtesy of Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
“The protest took place on the corniche instead,” an anti-riot police officer who was present on the scene told L’Orient Today’s correspondent.
The Internal Security Forces, army intelligence and municipal police were deployed at the popular swimming beach in Saida to prevent the scheduled press conference, but the organizers moved the press conference to the corniche so that it could still go ahead.
‘Women across Lebanon should be able to wear a bikini or a burkini’
Activist Josephine Zgheib spoke during the press conference, stating that her group had gathered “to call for the right of citizens to wear whatever they want and exercise their freedom of movement in their own country. Women across Lebanon should be able to wear a bikini or a burkini if they want to. We are gathered simply because Mayssa wanted to wear a bikini and swim, and, as a result, was harassed, along with her husband, by a sheikh and over 15 of his companions.”
Mayssa Hanouni Yaafouri, one of the women harassed on May 14, has filed a complaint against the sheikhs who were responsible for the intrusion.
She expressed her "anger" at Saoudi's decision. "This is oppression and an attack on our freedom of expression," she told L'Orient-Le Jour on Saturday, adding, "I feel unsafe in the city, I even took my 16-year-old son out of Saida fearing something would happen to him."
Contacted the day of the incident, Saoudi told L'Orient-Le Jour he condemned the altercation but had been powerless to prevent it.
‘They get drunk and get naked on our beaches’
Activist Maya Mroueh, who was present at the protest, told L’Orient Today, “I am Lebanese, and I have the right to be on the Lebanese coast, and no one can stop me,” as the municipal police blocked activists from going down to the beach.
Protesters in Saida on May 21, 2023. (Courtesy of Mathieu Karam/L'Orient Today)
Sheikh Hussam al-Ailani, who was also at Sunday's protest, told L’Orient Today that the issue has become “a challenge to God.”
“We do not accept that people come, challenge and provoke the city, and they get drunk and get naked on our beaches,” he explained.
MP Mark Daou who was present at the scene Sunday, told L’Orient Today that “the Lebanese Constitution preserves the rights of all the Lebanese to freedom of religion and freedom of speech especially in public areas, so we are here today to reaffirm this.”
Reporting contributed by Muntasser Abdallah and Matthieu Karam