All She Lost: The Explosion in Lebanon, the Collapse of a Nation and the Women who Survive

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Description

Award-winning journalist Dalal Mawad was in Lebanon when the blast happened, and was one of the first journalists to report on the mysterious and devastating explosion. Now, after years of reporting on the victims and on Lebanon itself, she sees it as one more stitch in the fabric of Lebanons painful history. During her reporting, she discovered something else that it is the women who stay behind, and it is through their stories that the history of the Middle East must be re-constructed. She set out to record the stories of those she met, the women long discriminated against, and those whose stories are untold. She spoke to mothers who lost their children on August 4, spouses who lost their partners, refugee women who have fled from the war in Syria and who now find themselves in another failing state. We hear from the Lebanese grandmother, bankrupted by the small nation's collapse, who remembers Beiruts glory days of the 1960s when the likes of Brigitte Bardot and Miles Davis came to Beirut. And then the women like Dalal herself, who have left their home behind. The women in this book all experienced the explosion and suffered unimaginable loss and tragedy, but it is not just this one event that brings them together. Their personal stories converged to tell the story of a nation whose glory days are long gone, now riven by protracted violence, lurching from crisis to crisis, and fighting to survive. It tells not only of what these women have lost, but also what Lebanon has lost, and a part of the Middle East that is no more.

Author Bio

Dalal Mawad is an independent award-winning Lebanese journalist based in Paris, France. She is working as freelance producer for CNN in Paris and as a part-time journalism professor at Sciences Po. Mawad was a senior producer with the Associated Press based in Lebanon when twin blasts rocked Beirut on August 4th 2020. She extensively covered the explosion and its aftermath as well as Lebanons economic and financial crisis since 2019. Her AP bylines have been published in the Washington Post and New York Times.