CAROLINE BAZZI

Beirut – Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun is a researcher and university professor, who investigates the issue of Lebanese women deeply. She never allows the patriarchal system to take away her free thoughts. She has many publications such as “A Citizen, Not A Woman”, “Domestic Violence: Men speak out”, “Cases of femicide before the Lebanese”.

Her book “Through the Eyes of Women: Lebanese Women’s Issues” includes her previously written articles.  We spoke to Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun about her book.

She wrote women’s stories

Azza Charara Baydoun wrote her book consists of her articles before the Covid-19 outbreak.  Indicated that her articles focus on women, Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun said, “There are many topics about women in the articles, for instance; female domestic workers and how women try to change their conditions. My book also tells the differences between men and women, the visibility of violence against women, and punishment given to the perpetrators.”

Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun conducts and publishes feminist works. She also holds seminars and campaigns about women’s issues and struggles. “Women struggle to change the thoughts of their society. They push the government to participate in politics.” 

“I write to read”

Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun talked about how she chose the articles in her book:

“Some of the articles in my book are feminist researches. I am ready to tell my views during seminars but I don’t have opportunities. For this reason, I write articles and publish them in a daily newspaper. I try to choose the best title for my articles. I write to read.”

Urgent actions are needed

Talking about how women’s issues are ignored, Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun, “There are some people working on women’s issues but as feminists, we don’t accept the ignorance of women’s issues anymore. Do you know that the Lebanon civil war takes feminist actions back 15 years? We say our problems are fundamental but hidden in reality. For this reason, urgent actions are needed for us.”

“We continue to work during the pandemic”

Domestic violence increases during the Covid-19 pandemic in Lebanon, Dr. Azza Charara Baydoun said, “The first victims of the pandemic are women. But we don’t stay silent during the pandemic. The existence of feminist research, seminars, and campaigns are the means of feminist struggle. For this reason, we continue to work during the pandemic. Women never give up working.”

“Judges’ rulings are different”

In the first chapter of the “Through the Eyes of Women: Lebanese Women’s Issues” book, the writer asks, “Do judges' rulings are different in cases of sexual violence?”

“In the first chapter of my book, I show the different rulings of judges in the cases of sexual violence. We should conduct a large-scale study in order to answer this question. The judges should try to defend the victims; no matter they are women or men.”