BEIRUT: Syrian fashion designer Manal Ajaj shocked her audience at a show she presented on Wednesday by dressing young Lebanese male models in army uniforms of the Syrian regime.
Lebanon, which hosts 1 million Syrian refugees, has tried to stay neutral in the Syrian conflict.
And it was only 12 years ago that the Syrian Army ended its three-decade presence in Lebanon after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.
The audience included Ajaj’s friends, Lebanese and foreign celebrities, and media figures. “This is the second show for Ajaj in Beirut,” Johnny Fadlallah, whose company L.I.P.S. Management organized the event, told Arab News.
“I didn’t understand what happened at the end of the show. I was engaged with preparations at the backstage. I heard some criticism and some praise for the show, and most critical people were from the media. They asked me why Ajaj was a fanatic supporter of the Syrian regime,” he said, adding that her show last year focused on Syrian suffering under Daesh.
“I don’t understand politics. I simply support the party of beauty and fashion. I know Ajaj is a supporter of the Syrian regime. She lives in the UAE, but she has a workshop in Damascus.”
Lebanese fashion journalist Hadia Sinno told Arab News: “I was surprised, like many others, about what happened at the end of the show, when young men came on the catwalk wearing Syrian Army uniforms.”
Designer causes anger by dressing models in Syrian regime uniforms
Designer causes anger by dressing models in Syrian regime uniforms
UN rights chief Shocked by ‘unbearable’ Darfur atrocities
- Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur
PORT SUDAN: Nearly three years of war have put the Sudanese people through “hell,” the UN’s rights chief said on Sunday, blasting the vast sums spent on advanced weaponry at the expense of humanitarian aid and the recruitment of child soldiers.
Since April 2023, Sudan has been gripped by a conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that has left tens of thousands of people dead and around 11 million displaced.
Speaking in Port Sudan during his first wartime visit, UN Human Rights commissioner Volker Turk said the population had endured “horror and hell,” calling it “despicable” that funds that “should be used to alleviate the suffering of the population” are instead spent on advanced weapons, particularly drones.
More than 21 million people are facing acute food insecurity, and two-thirds of Sudan’s population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid, according to the UN.
In addition to the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis, Sudan is also facing “the increasing militarization of society by all parties to the conflict, including through the arming of civilians and recruitment and use of children,” Turk added.
He said he had heard testimony of “unbearable” atrocities from survivors of attacks in Darfur, and warned of similar crimes unfolding in the Kordofan region — the current epicenter of the fighting.
Testimony of these atrocities must be heard by “the commanders of this conflict and those who are arming, funding and profiting from this war,” he said.
Mediation efforts have failed to produce a ceasefire, even after international outrage intensified last year with reports of mass killings, rape, and abductions during the RSF’s takeover of El-Fasher in Darfur.
“We must ensure that the perpetrators of these horrific violations face justice regardless of the affiliation,” Turk said on Sunday, adding that repeated attacks on civilian infrastructure could constitute “war crimes.”
He called on both sides to “cease intolerable attacks against civilian objects that are indispensable to the civilian population, including markets, health facilities, schools and shelters.”
Turk again warned on Sunday that crimes similar to those seen in El-Fasher could recur in volatile Kordofan, where the RSF has advanced, besieging and attacking several key cities.
Hundreds of thousands face starvation across the region, where more than 65,000 people have been displaced since October, according to the latest UN figures.
