Thursday, July 30, 2009

Nayla Tuwayni and her non-sectarian marriage

The biggest social news in Lebanon is the marriage of Nayla Tuwayni (manager of An-Nahar---the racist, right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian (people) newspaper), MP from Beirut, to the Jerry Springer of Lebanon, Malik Maktabi. She is Greek Orthodox and he is Shi`ite and they both went to Cyprus for the marriage that could not be registered in Lebanon across sectarian lines. A relative of the couple (of one of them) sent me a message asking that I show support for Nayla because "The Murr family [her grandparents on her mother's side]...disapproved the wedding and forced her sister not to be in Cyprus with her sister. The only family were present, were Her Uncle Marwan Hamadi and his brother Ali and her mother and Goubran"s wife and the 2 daughters. Ghassan Toueni strongly support Nayla, and is sick enough he could not travel and his days are counted." I told the source that while I support anti-sectarian marriages and gestures, and while I commend any violation of the sectarian rules, laws, and regulation in Lebanon, I would never ever support Tuwayni, and not because of a paper that she has just started "running"--in name. Tuwayni has run a very sectarian campaign and she was part of a very sectarian movement. You can't have it both ways.