Hayat Mirshad in front of the Justice Palace, June 1, 2023, (Credit: Mario Doueiry/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — A message circulating on instant messaging apps is threatening a festival organized by the FEMALE feminist collective scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
In the voice message, an anonymous person addresses security personnel and the interior minister, demanding they put an end to the festival.
"This is a warning message against the 'change festivals' that are being a cover for perverted and immoral acts," the voice says.
To celebrate its 10th anniversary, the FEMALE collective is hosting a two-day festival on Friday and Saturday at Beirut Hippodrome.
The organization said the festival is "inclusive for all ages and all individuals and will feature inspiring trailblazers talks, discussions, arts, knowledge sharing, inspirational talks, networking, uplifting music, DJs, and kid-friendly activities throughout the day and night."
The threatening message was "on behalf of Beirut's residents, Tariq al-Jadideh, Achrafieh, Basta and Zoqaq al-Blat... all of Beirut," said the anonymous person. "We have our brothers in Achrafieh who we are in contact with despite those who wanted to separate us and stir up sectarian sentiments, however, we stand with them today in the face of perversion terrorism."
The term "pervert" in Arabic — shawadh — is often used by some in Lebanon to refer to the LGBTQ+ community or queerness.
"We won't allow or let any festival that will be a cover to the perverts' world to pass; our eyes are open on Achrafieh, Tariq al-Jadideh, Qasqas and the hippodrome."
Hayat Mirshad, co-founder of the FEMALE collective and editor-in-chief of the Sharika wa Laken feminist platform, told L'Orient Today that the Christian group “Jnoud al-Rab” (Soldiers of God), warned members of her organization over an informal meeting that Dar al-Fatwa, the highest Sunni religious authority in Lebanon, is behind the voice message.
A spokesperson for Dar al-Fatwa told L'Orient Today that he has no information on this claim, denying that the entity has anything to do with the threatening message.
Mirshad said FEMALE will hold the festival as planned, despite the security concerns.
"What we are doing emanates from our right to assembly and the right for anyone to organize something they believe fighting for is a priority," she added. "We have informed officials, including the interior ministry, and they told us they will provide protection."
Backlash against feminist movements
"This is part of the framework of the backlash against the feminist movement and how the authorities, mainly the religious and extremist ones, are inciting hatred toward our movement because they are affected by it — our movement is affecting their privileges and power that are built upon violence against women and their rights," Mirshad said. "We have been witnessing this backlash often, especially lately, in many different and spread-out aspects."
"Part of the campaign against the feminist movement is using people's fears to attack the movement — for example, something that scares people nowadays is women or the queer community obtaining their rights so they use that to their benefit."
Earlier in June, Mirshad was sued for defamation after actor and director Joe Kodeih filed a complaint against her.
Her feminist platform had campaigned against showing one of his plays in a Beirut theater, calling for a boycott and for the show to be canceled, due to harassment claims made against him by several women and young girls in 2020. Kodeih was never charged on the basis of these accusations.
“Every week, there are femicides. Harassers, on the other hand, are hardly ever investigated or, if they are arrested, are released under false pretexts," she had said. "The treatment of these issues is always tinged with machismo. Instead of prosecuting the culprits, judges attack journalists who expose these facts! We demand that the testimonies of harassed women be taken into consideration.”
