Women get roles in new Lebanese government

Hezbollah's new ministry now controls one of the largest budgets in Lebanon.

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN
Updated: FEBRUARY 1, 2019 06:53
A Lebanese protester carries a poster of prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese television news anchor May Chidiac during a demonstration at Martyrs' Square in Beirut September 29, 2005. Hundreds of protesters condemned the assassination attempt against Chidiac. Chidiac was badly wounded when a bomb explode (photo credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)
A Lebanese protester carries a poster of prominent anti-Syrian Lebanese television news anchor May Chidiac during a demonstration at Martyrs' Square in Beirut September 29, 2005. Hundreds of protesters condemned the assassination attempt against Chidiac. Chidiac was badly wounded when a bomb explode
(photo credit: JAMAL SAIDI/ REUTERS)
Almost ten months after Lebanon held an election it finally has a new government. A long stalemate between the leading parties had kept the country in limbo. Now at least four women will take leading roles in the new ministries being formed.
Details about the new government began leaking as sunset in Beirut on Thursday. Saad Hariri will be Prime Minister again, his third term. His father, Rafic Hariri, was assassinated in 2005, leading to a mass protest that eventually ejected Syrian forces from the country. But Lebanon has faced turmoil since, with Hezbollah and its allies on the rise. The finance minister, from the Shi’ite Amal party, will remain the same, in Ali Hassan Khalil’s hands. Gebran Bassil of Michel Aoun’s Christian Free Patriotic Movement will stay on as foreign minister. Hezbollah gets the health ministry.
Joyce Karam, Washington correspondent of The National noted that women will run four of the 30 appointed ministries. This is unprecedented. “The women in Lebanon’s government are neither token nor figureheads. For the first time, women take the ministries of Energy and Interior,” she tweeted. She provided their names as May Chidiac, Nada Boustany, Raya Hassan and Violette Khairallah Safadi. Hassan was previously a finance minister and is an ally of Hariri. Chidiac, a journalist, was badly wounded in an assassination attempt in 2005, losing a leg.
The defense minister will reportedly be Elias Bou Saab.He is an ally of Aoun who is also allied with Hezbollah. A former Minister of Education and Higher Education, it is unclear why he was chosen for the Defense Ministry, except that he is part of Aoun’s party.
Although choosing the Health Minister doesn’t appear like an important appointment, it is widely considered an increasing role for the group. “This ministry has the fourth biggest budget in the Lebanese state,” according to Reuters. That gives Hezbollah more control as a time of tension with Israel and at a time when Hezbollah’s allies in Syria and Tehran appear to be increasing their power in the region. Iran’s allies in Iraq have also sought out government ministries, straddling the role of armed militia and political party.
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