0:00 Intro

2:18 Life Today in Beirut

11:05 The Core Problem

22:30 The Structure

40:08 Societal Constraints

Click to watch:

https://youtu.be/h8GDfyegcE4

We're with Mona Salem for Episode 186 of The Beirut Banyan.

We discuss difficulties of day-to-day life at the moment in Beirut; the core governing and societal factors preventing immediate political change; why the term 'sectarianism' ushers debate and controversy; the history and durability of Lebanon's confessional consociational governing structure; and societal demands - and constraints - for championing disenfranchises groups' rights.

The LSE blog post and FES paper discussed during this episode are linked below:

Breaking the Sectarian Chains: Lebanon Revolts Against its Corrupt Leaders:

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mec/2019/10/22/breaking-the-sectarian-chains-lebanon-revolts-against-its-corrupt-leaders/

Queers in Quarantine: Between Pandemics and Social Violence in Lebanon:

https://www.fes-lebanon.org/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/covid-19/Queers_in_Quarantine___Between_Pandemics_and_Social_Violence_in_Lebanon.pdf

Mona Salem is a MA in Political Studies Candidate at the American University of Beirut.

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www.labonnesoupe.com

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Music by Marc Codsi. Graphics by Sara Tarhini.