Enlightening, eye-opening, and extremely moving writing. Published in the superb blog, Between a Veil and a Dark Place, it’s called “What it is like to grow up in Hezbollah culture“. It’s a long article, but it’s worth your time, it’s also very hard to read at times but it’s worth your emotional investment too. You can read it as an excellent memoir, the author’s understanding of her own situation and description of events is so compelling that I would happily ask her to write a complete book about her memories. You can also read it as an eye-opener, to understand the situation and the historical context of Hezbollah in the Middle East, as all the necessary information is there. It’s the complete package.
Unfortunately, I haven’t read the rest of her articles myself – I’m still busy reading through Dan Finke’s and Kate Donovan’s blogs, and they both have proved a time consuming challenge together. But only looking at her titles, it seems we have some kind of common experience, in that both of us try to talk about the pain of living in Islamic world and then there are some people who have never set foot in Middle East who felt more qualified than us to explain to us about what has been an inseparable part of our lives. This is where the similarity ends though, my whole experiences don’t hold a candle to hers, her bravery, clarity, and depth of thought is something I can only be envious of.
Of course, I’m making it a priority to read everything, and judging by this one article I’m in it for a great ride. Read the article, bookmark the blog, and if you’d like, donate to keep her site going, which clearly comes at a great personal risk and cost.