Crowds of Mothers March in Beirut, Tripoli against Sectarianism

The women carried Lebanese flags, banners and white roses amid a heavy media presence. Banners denounced any attempts for sedition and a return to a civil war era.

The protesters marched to Asaad Al-Asaad Street in the midst of applause and cheers. Even women threw them with rice and chanted in solidarity with the protesters.

Many of those who took part in the unity move noted that the two neighborhoods’ residents have coexisted for decades and that the two areas have become largely mixed in terms of residence, markets and social activities.

“I salute all my friends from Ain Rummaneh school which I study in, and call them to partake in this march,” one girl from Chiyah said to media outlets.

Overnight confrontations in several Lebanese regions, mostly fistfights and stone throwing, injured dozens of people.

Stone-throwing clashes took place between young men from Shiyyah and the adjacent Ain el-Rummaneh after a video circulated on WhatsApp showing Ain el-Rummaneh residents insulting Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. The clip was later shown to be several years old and clashes were quickly contained by the army

This area in particular saw the onset of the 1975-1990 civil war. A shooting in Ain el-Rummaneh in April 1975 triggered the 15-year war that killed nearly 150,000 people.

In Tripoli, a similar march was staged by Lebanese mothers to reject sectarian rhetoric after a night of tension in the city.