Fighting Famine, Navigating Patriarchy

Abstract

During World War  I , most of the male population in Lebanon was mobilized and conscripted into military service (known as the Sefer Barlik). As a result, women and children bore the brunt of the suffering. Women, in particular, became victims of multiple crises: the ruthless greed of wealthy merchants, the naval blockade of the Syrian-Lebanese coast by European powers, the corruption of Ottoman officials, devastating locust plagues, and ultimately the Ottoman government’s poor planning in addressing the needs of its people during the war. My article addresses these issues and deals with the reasons that caused the famine. It sheds light on the impact of the famine on women of various social strata. I examine images of the famine women that depicted them as “monsters,” “wild,” “unruly,” “weak,” and “selfish,” which give the impression that women, unlike men, were irrational, unreliable, and could not endure wars. The direct impression one gets when reading studies that dealt with WWI and famine in Ottoman Lebanon is that women easily succumbed to hunger, which could also imply that men, the strong and powerful, did not. In addition, I highlight the ways in which the rising Lebanese bourgeoisie used the famine to construct the national narrative of the Lebanese nation state.