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Beirut concerts sing the music of the Lebanese project Mashre Leila after the cancellation of his concert following Christian pressure
08/10/2019
Beirut cafes and some of its streets were filled on Friday night – Saturday (9-10) / 08/2019 with Project songs (Project Laila) at a time when the group was to organize an evening at the International Festivals of Byblos in Lebanon and was canceled under religious pressure from the church.
The musicians celebrated the alternative concert of the project "Leila", where a festival entitled "The Sound of Music Up" is held at the Palace Theater in Hamra Street in Beirut, while the surrounding cafes of the city were dedicated to their songs. The alternative ceremony carried the slogan "for the homeland" organized by the Center for the Defense of Freedoms (heavens) and the participation of activists, artists and journalists.
The festivals of Byblos have canceled the band's concert "to avoid bloodshed," the statement said.
In front of an audience of more than 3,000 people, organizers chanted "The repression is not a project". In its letter, the group expressed its refusal to turn Lebanese society into an "obscurantist" society.
"Tonight, August 9, we were supposed to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our group with our families, our friends and our audience," she said in a letter read by activist Jumana Talhouk. "Tonight, it's no longer a Laila project, a future that leaves at least the most fundamental freedoms, a future where censorship and self-censorship continue to keep us from expressing ourselves. marvel at the support we receive even from people who do not like our work but who have refused to see our society sink into obscurantism. "
The concert of the Laila project presented at the concert a video clip to be broadcast before the Byblos concert, entitled "Radio Romance". The song "El Gin", to which the Christian religious authorities of Lebanon had already objected, was performed on stage because it offended the religious values.
Actors Badia Abu Chakra and Nada Abu Farhat appeared on the stage to deliver a speech on behalf of the concert that surpbaded all pressures and threats. Abu Shakra said that on Friday, August 9, 2019, "he has gone from day to day in repression to prevent repression." Good night, it's a project. They kicked you out, but they did not kneel until we sold our freedom. What remained as we decided to cancel the victims and silence the crime and we will see the crime then. "
Abu Farhat said on behalf of the woman: "We are all students who need to learn at the National University, we are all activists who write his opinion despite the persecution of the information we are every refugee who will leave her home and go to work despite the racist laws, we are each with the feeling that what is left is her place "In the country, I face the regime, what we have left."
Abu Farhat spoke of women victims of violence on a daily basis, but who do not resort to violence and do not threaten to "shed blood". She demanded the freedom to choose her artistic cultural project.
Abu Farahat told Reuters that she had attended and participated in this ceremony because she believed in a civilized country and that she was rejecting religious anger and threatening the art.
The musician and oud player Ziad Sahab declared that this was a natural place for any musician sensitive to the danger of the domination of religious institutions over works of art.
He added: "This power is very shared" in this game ", instead of being two groups to lobby the government for it to receive garbage from the street, two groups, Hun, for to say that we want to sing, Hovoa Win, my uncle. "
Pianist Vladimir Kiromilian, who participated in the ceremony, said his participation was intended to convey a message rejecting censorship of works of art. "We must continue to make music without pressure," he told Reuters. "All that's happening today is to stop, if we lose something small we stop, which concludes the case, the news has to multiply."
Lebanese and international human rights organizations called on the Lebanese justice system to act quickly against those who helped cancel the concert (Project Laila). The band has played throughout Lebanon in recent years, including two in the ancient city of Byblos, but it is planned to hold a concert on August 9, 2019 at Byblos International Festivals in Byblos. A hostile campaign on social networks was organized to stop the show.
The Lebanese troupe, whose member is gay, performs in major cities around the world, said to be the target of a smear campaign in Lebanon aimed at undermining freedom of expression.
Over the past decade, Project Laila's songs have sparked controversy in the region with words about persecution, the working clbad, bigotry, homophobia and gender equality.
Jean Kbadir, one of the organizers of the ceremony, felt that what had happened with the project (Laila) was an insult to many, adding: "A misleading and hateful campaign against the Laila project and the state provided enough protection to organize the ceremony and we thought of an alternative party to protect freedom of expression. "People volunteered for free. It's a solidarity party that resists through culture and art against any force that wants us to shut up. "Reuters
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