In countries like ours, women enter politics in mourning clothes.
A reference to the way many female politicians are the widows of male politicians who have been assassinated).
The independence of Lebanon was regained on March 14, and on March 14 I felt that I avenged (my husband's) assassination.
Returning from a Cedar Revolution|Cedar Revolution protest, 14 March 2005
Nayla Moawad (born 3 July 1940) is a
LebaneseLebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
politician. Outside of Lebanon, she is best known as the widow of former
President René MoawadRené Moawad was President of Lebanon for 17 days in 1989, from the 5th to the 22nd of November, when he was assassinated by unknowns. Syria accused Michel Aoun of the assassination....
, who was assassinated on 22 November 1989. Within Lebanon, she is a high-profile politician in her own right, having served as a member of the National Assembly since 1991. Following her
reelectionThe 2005 Lebanese General Elections were the first elections in thirty years without a Syrian military or intelligence presence in Lebanon. These elections were the first in Lebanese history to be won outright by a single electoral block and were also the first to be monitored by the United...
in June 2005, she was appointed to the
CabinetThis is the list of the Lebanese government that was formed by Fouad Siniora on 19 July 2005 who was appointed by then president Émile Lahoud. All the main political blocs were included in it except for the Free Patriotic Movement-led bloc headed by General Michel Aoun...
on 19 July as Minister for Social Affairs.
Personal details
Born in
BsharriBsharri , is a Lebanese town at about 1,450 m of altitude, near the Kadisha Valley. It is located at , in the Bsharri District of the North Governorate. Bsharri is the town of the only remaining Original Cedars of Lebanon...
, Lebanon, as the daughter of
Nagib Issa El-Khouri and
Evelyne Roch. Her father was the scion of a prominent Maronite Christian family and a relative of
Bechara El KhouryBechara El Khoury was the first post-independence President of Lebanon, holding office from 21 September 1943 to 18 September 1952, apart from an 11-day interruption in 1943...
, Lebanon's first post-Independence President. She was educated at the Ecole des Franciscaines Missionnaires de Marie, Rue du Musee, a
Catholic schoolCatholic schools are maintained parochial schools or education ministries of the Catholic Church. the Church operates the world's largest non-governmental school system...
, and subsequently graduated from Saint Joseph's University with a
B.A.A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree in
FrenchFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Literature and History. She later studied
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at
Cambridge UniversityThe University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
From 1962 to 1965, Moawad worked as a journalist for the daily newspaper,
L'Orient. In 1965, she surprised many people by marrying René Moawad, the scion of a rival clan who was fifteen years her senior. Despite the disparity in their ages, and despite the traditional antagonism between their families, the marriage was a happy one and produced two children. Rima, now a lawyer and a graduate of
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
was born in 1966, and Michel, now a lawyer and businessman who graduated from Sorbonne University in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, followed in 1972.
Moawad has sought to perpuate her slain husband's legacy by founding the René Moawad Foundation (in 1990), which works for social justice and economic development in Lebanon and the Arab world. Since 1994, she has served as President of the Center for Research and Education on Democracy.
Parliamentary career
As a member of the National Assembly, Moawad represents the
ZghartaZgharta, or Zghorta is a large town in North Lebanon, with an estimated population of around 70,000.Zgharta is about 150 metres above sea level and lies between the rivers of Jouit and Rashein...
-
TripoliTripoli is the largest city in northern Lebanon and the second-largest city in Lebanon. Situated 85 km north of the capital Beirut, Tripoli is the capital of the North Governorate and the Tripoli District. Geographically located on the east of the Mediterranean, the city's history dates back...
constituency in northern Lebanon. She has served on numerous parliamentary committees, specializing in such diverse fields as finance, children's rights, and education. She has campaigned strongly for women's and children's rights, and has opposed political corruption. She is a prominent member of the
Qornet Shehwan GatheringThe Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...
, a
coalitionA coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
of Christian parliamentarians which opposed the Syrian military presence in Lebanon and continues to campaign for the building of a modern, democratic nation state. She is also a member of the Democratic Forum, a coalition comprising both Christian and Muslim parliamentarians opposed to the Pro-Syrian regime. She has also been affiliated with the National Front, a multi-sectarian parliamentary block working for political reforms. In the
general electionThe 2005 Lebanese General Elections were the first elections in thirty years without a Syrian military or intelligence presence in Lebanon. These elections were the first in Lebanese history to be won outright by a single electoral block and were also the first to be monitored by the United...
held in May–June 2005, she retained her seat.
In 2004, Moawad announced her candidacy for the presidency in elections scheduled to be held that year. These were postponed, however, until 2007.
Moawad lives in Hazmieh and Zgharta.
Moawad's son, Michel, founded a new political party in 2006 called
Independence MovementThe Independence Movement is a neoconservative and secularist Lebanese political party based in Zgharta , founded in 2006 by Michel René Moawad, son of slain Lebanese President René Moawad and MP and former first lady Nayla Moawad.The movement is part of the anti-Syrian Qornet Shehwan...
. The movement is part of the anti-Syrian
Qornet Shehwan GatheringThe Qornet Shehwan Gathering is a Lebanese political organization, comprising politicians, intellectuals, and businessmen, mostly Christian and ranging in ideology from the centre-right to the center-left. The organization is not a political party in the classical sense: its members belong to,...
and the
March 14 AllianceThe March 14 alliance , named after the date of the Cedar Revolution, is a coalition of political parties and independents in Lebanon that call for sovereignty over all Lebanese territories, led by MP Saad Hariri, younger son of Rafik Hariri, the assassinated former prime minister of Lebanon, as...
. In the 2005–2009 it had 3 Maronite Christian MPs for the
Zgharta DistrictZgharta District is a district of the North Governorate, Lebanon.The administrative center is the town of Zgharta. The district has 57 populated areas with 30 municipalities covering 37 villages. Some areas share the same municipality such as Ehden/Zgharta, Kfarsghab/Morh Kfarsghab or...
in the Lebanese Parliament, Nayla Moawad, Jawad Simon BOULOS and Samir Frangieh. Since 2009, the party has been led by Michel René Moawad, Jawad Simon Boulos and Youssef Bahaa El Douaihy.
In the 2009 Lebanese Parliamentary elections, Moawad decided not to run for a seat in her district. She instead encouraged and supported the election of her son Michel Rene Moawad. He and the Independence Movement's other two candidates in the district lost to their opponent Sleiman Frangieh and his coalition. Moawad soon left Lebanon for Venezuela for business reasons and the future of the Independence Movement is unknown. Nayla Moawad still remains a strong anti-Syrian lobbyist and is still a member of the 14th of March Movement. However, her political future is not clear at the moment due to the loss of a lot of her influence and political power.
External links