Soha Bechara a Symbol of Resistance

Words by Aimée Lister

Soha Bechara is a former prisoner at the Khiam detention center and undoubtedly one of the centre's most famous detainees. She was held for 10 years from 1988 after an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Antoine Lahad, the leader of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, at just 20 years old. It was only after an intense freedom campaign that she was eventually released (in 1998). 

After her release, Bechara moved to France where she authored a book titled Resistance: My Life for Lebanon which recounts her experiences in Khiam. It is a confronting, raw account of the realities of occupation and resistance, with moments of community and humanity  – such as carving rosaries from olive pits – offering a momentary tonic to the horrors of Khiam. 

Resistance: My Life for Lebanon

"In a time when special attention is paid to the violent conflicts in the Middle East, and Americans despair of understanding what motivates Palestinian suicide bombers, the story of a secular Orthodox Christian left rebel risking her life to rid her country of occupying forces will resonate with Americans looking to understand why young Palestinian girls blow themselves up in crowded Jerusalem markets."

Available via Middle East Books and More

Untitled Part 1: Everything and Nothing

The first installment of Jayce Slalom's documentary from 1999 Everything and Nothing is an intimate dialogue with Soha Bechara in her Paris dorm room taped one year after her release from captivity in Khiam torture and interrogation centre.

She'd been invited by art dealer Aimé Maeght – who'd caught sight of her work on a trip to Algiers – to participate in an exhibition of international surrealist art in Paris. Later that same year, Maeght hosted a solo exhibition of Baya's work where she enthralled the artistic and intellectual establishment. French writer, poet and surrealism theorist André Bréton wrote of her: "I speak not as others have, to deplore an ending, but rather to promote a beginning, and at this beginning, Baya is queen. The beginning of an age of emancipation and of agreement, in radical rupture with the preceding era...for the rocket that launches the new age, I propose the name Baya. Baya, whose mission is to reinvigorate the meaning of those beautiful nostalgic words, 'happy Arabia.' Baya holds and rekindles the golden bough."