Nayab Abidi

Over the past two weeks alone, I personally have been denied housing in three different buildings across two different areas in Lebanon simply because I am a Muslim Shia woman who wears the hijab. This was not a matter of price. In all the cases, landlords were already demanding four times the normal market rate. Some properties were publicly advertised at standard prices, only for prospective tenants to be told that those prices applied exclusively to Christians. For Muslim Shia applicants, the rent would suddenly triple. Real estate agents openly questioned me about my sect. Because my name does not immediately reveal my background, I was repeatedly asked whether I was Sunni or Shia. More than once, I was specifically asked whether I was a Shia from South Lebanon, with claims that certain municipalities had circulated directives preventing locals from renting to "people like us". To those engaging in this discrimination, understand that you are not weakening us. You are merely exposing a prejudice that serves the interests of those who seek to divide Lebanon. Terroist Israel is very proud of you since it undoubtedly benefits from every act of sectarian hatred directed against fellow Lebanese. But listen well: this war will end. We will return to our homes, our villages, and our land in the South, where we belong. The houses that were temporarily filled will once again stand empty, the markets that briefly prospered will once again fall silent, and the bitterness that fuels such discrimination will consume only those who carry it from the inside out. As for us, the people of South Lebanon, we will remain proud, dignified, resilient, and full of life. Through our grace under pressure, our generosity in hardship, and our refusal to surrender our humanity, we have demonstrated values far closer to the teachings of Jesus Christ than those who invoke His name while practicing exclusion and discrimination. We will return home with our heads held high.