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| JOEL SAGET / AFP-GETTY IMAGES |
Special Report | Arab Democracy
Nayla Tueni
Journalist
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Posted Sunday, May 14, 2006; 11.24BST
A year after the independence revolution forced out Syrian troops and
brought in a new Lebanese government, Nayla Tueni is chairing a meeting
of students discussing a unique project. The idea is to form a shadow
cabinet of young people to keep tabs on the country's actual Ministers.
She stays cool when the talk gets a little raucous, yet no one harbors
a greater passion for the plan. It is the brainchild of her father,
newspaperman and Lebanese M.P. Gebran Tueni, who was assassinated at
age 48 in a bomb attack last December in what was widely seen as
revenge for his fearless criticism of Syrian President Bashar Assad and
his Lebanese allies.
That thrust Nayla, 23, to the forefront of the unfinished struggle to end Lebanon's domination by sectarian warlords and their foreign backers. She is on the way to becoming one of the country's most influential freedom advocates, as heir of the newspaper An-Nahar, founded by her great-grandfather in 1933 and long a leading voice of reason. It's a risky task; last year assassins killed An-Nahar columnist Samir Kassir. Nayla's latest essay brimmed with her father's customary defiance. "You can kill as many as you like," she taunted her father's assassins. "By killing us, you revive us."
Nayla's father's dream was to tap the young generation and create a modern, nonsectarian, united Lebanon. "They are pushing us to change," he told Time at the height of the protests. "We are not afraid," Nayla says. "When they killed Samir Kassir, we cried. My father said, 'We don't have to cry, we have to fight.' We will fight to the end."
| From the TIME archive |
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Stomping on Democracy in Egypt [May 11, 2006]
On Scene: Security forces crack down violently on a protest in downtown Cairo, showing that the government still has the upper hand in the struggle over democracy
Raising Their Voices [Feb. 23, 2004 ]
Savy, optimistic and ambitious, a new generation of Arab women is speaking out, forging its own brand of feminism — and slowly reshaping Arab society
The Price of Victory [Apr. 24, 2006]
Isolated and short of funds, Hamas finds that governing the Palestinians is no easy task
Gebran Tueni: An Appreciation [Feb. 5, 2006]
'He didn't look the part of the bravest newspaperman in the Middle East. But after he was assassinated at the age of 48 this week in a car bombing that obliterated his Range Rover as he traveled to work in Beirut, it's clear that's exactly what he was'
Springtime For Arab Democracy [March 2, 2005]
PHOTOESSAY: In Beirut, Baghdad, Ramallah, Cairo and Riyadh, the pressure for democratic reforms grows. The results are sometimes surprising
A Good Idea That's Off To A Bad Start [Feb. 28, 2005]
Europe's Muslim councils were meant to be a mouthpiece for liberal Islam. But are they losing out to the hardliners?
Drawing a Fine Line [Feb. 20, 2006]
In the age of cultural rage, democracies are under fire to decide when free speech is hate speech
Baby Step for Democracy [Sept. 9, 2005]
Egypt's presidential election may point the way for future advances
Democracy on the March? [Feb. 21, 2005]
A baby step towards popular suffrage sees conservative Islamists trounce liberal reformers
10 Questions For Shirin Ebadi [May 15, 2006]
A judge who was dismissed from the bench after the 1979 Islamic revolution, she is now a lawyer who works to promote press freedom, spotlight gender inequity and child abuse, and defend dissidents against Iran's theocratic regime. She told TIME about the impact of her Nobel Peace Prize, Iran's nuclear ambitions and her daily relaxation ritual.
Days Of Cedar
Entrepreneur Asma-Maria Andraos found that freedom fighting was her first order of business
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