© Archives Wafa'a Céline Halawi
The article below is part of L’Orient Today’s selection of pieces translated from L’Orient-Le Jour’s special L’Orient des Écrivains (Writers’ edition) on Oct. 23, 2025 edition, produced for the ‘Beyrouth Livres’ Festival (annual book fair), in which the newsroom was opened to a group of writers, in partnership with the Institut français du Liban.“It’s enough that you’re Shiite”, were the last words of my ex, a Lebanese man from a community whose name I can’t even remember. I don’t keep track of religions, let alone communities. An involuntary lapse of memory, double-edged in Lebanon. Especially in Lebanon. Those words still echo years later. That was the first time I was labeled a Shiite.Actress, yes. “Dirty Arab” in Paris, as well. But Shiite? “It doesn’t show,” some would say when they found out I wasn’t “like them.” But frankly, how...
The article below is part of L’Orient Today’s selection of pieces translated from L’Orient-Le Jour’s special L’Orient des Écrivains (Writers’ edition) on Oct. 23, 2025 edition, produced for the ‘Beyrouth Livres’ Festival (annual book fair), in which the newsroom was opened to a group of writers, in partnership with the Institut français du Liban.“It’s enough that you’re Shiite”, were the last words of my ex, a Lebanese man from a community whose name I can’t even remember. I don’t keep track of religions, let alone communities. An involuntary lapse of memory, double-edged in Lebanon. Especially in Lebanon. Those words still echo years later. That was the first time I was labeled a Shiite.Actress, yes. “Dirty Arab” in Paris, as well. But Shiite? “It doesn’t show,” some would say when they found...