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Abstract
My dissertation project, titled States of Doubt: Disability, Sovereignty, and Crisis in Lebanon, explores the myriad challenges that disability activists have faced during, and in the aftermath of, the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) which left over 120,000 dead and 100,000 permanently disabled. The disability rights movement began with the founding of the Lebanese Sitting Handicapped Association (LSHA) in 1981, the first disability organization run by disabled people in Lebanon, six years into the civil war which became a catalyst for the movement as the number of disabled by injury rapidly rose. Disability activists sought to fight against the relegation of disabled people to the private sphere – within their homes as well as private rehabilitation institutions run by the same sectarian leaders and parties who were the main belligerents of the war. Radical for its time, LSHA was founded as a non-sectarian organization and embraced all disabled Lebanese citizens regardless of sectarian or political affiliation at a time when disabled people were largely excluded from all aspects of social, economic, and political life in their own communities. Today, disability organizations like LSHA face another period of turbulence as Lebanon plunges into a set of compounding economic, financial, public health, refugee, and political crises. On top of that the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Beirut Port explosion in 2020 both have only served to exacerbate these problems. My fieldwork in 2019 corresponded with the beginnings of this crisis as the Lebanese lira began to fall in value and as protests broke out during the October 2019 revolution. Since that time, LSHA has had to make critical decisions about how to adapt its strategies and work to the circumstances of the revolution and Lebanon’s state of crisis. In this paper, I will explore some of the decisions they made and actions they took in the aftermath of the October 2019 uprising. I will also trace the processes, experiences, and values that shaped these decisions, including the one to embrace the revolution and its goals even at the risk of losing the little influence they may have had in the government. I also observe the encounters disabled people have with able-bodied people and/or the built environment in their day-to-day lives as well as in moments of explicit political agency such as participating in the revolution. My analysis of these decisions revolves around the concept of doubt.
Discipline
Anthropology
Geographic Area
Lebanon
Sub Area
None