Mena Writings | The war told through their pens

For this first “MENA Writing”, we were honoured to present this collection by Noura AMER, the result of a project carried out with women in Lebanon.

Noura is a doctoral student in social and intercultural psychology at ULB, head of Hounna for empowerment ( https://www.facebook.com/HounnaForEmpowerment) and president of AWSA-Be asbl ( www.awsa.be)

The war told through their pens: a living memory for women

Founded in 2021 in southern Lebanon, “Hounna for Empowerment” is a feminist organisation committed to the emancipation of women and social change through initiatives rooted in local realities. It works to build a world where every individual lives in dignity, can make their own choices and participate fully in economic, social, political and cultural life. Its mission: to accompany women on their path to emancipation, to strengthen solidarity between women and to support community structures in rural areas, particularly those run by women.

This is the background to the “Elles et la guerre” project, supported by the Urgent Action Fund for Feminist Activism. The project was launched in response to the war in autumn 2024, which hit Lebanon hard, particularly in the south. Entitled “Literature and the Arts in Wartime”, it gathered the voices of women affected by the war, in the form of literary texts, poems, testimonies and artistic works.

This booklet, “The war told through their pens”, brings together these creations. It is a living archive for women, a resistance through words and images, a way of documenting the war in a different way, with emotion, lucidity and dignity. Through their writings and drawings, the participants express loss, exile and memory, but also resilience, attachment to the land and hope for a peaceful future.

Translated into three languages – Arabic, French and English – this collection aims to take their voices beyond borders. It is an invitation to read, listen and pass on. Their stories are acts of resistance, appeals for a just peace, and essential witnesses to our common struggle for a world free from oppression and violence.