Souha Bechara

Souha Bechara
سهى بشارة

Souha Bechara in 2006
Born (1967-06-15)June 15, 1967
Deir Mimas, Lebanon
Nationality Lebanese
Occupation Activist, Writer
Religion Eastern Orthodox

Souha Fawaz Bechara also spelled Souha Bechara or Soha Bechara (Arabic : سهى فواز بشارة) (born June 15, 1967) is a Lebanese national who, at the age of twenty one, attempted to assassinate General Antoine Lahad of the South Lebanon Army. Lahad survived the assassination whereas Bechara was quickly arrested and held in the infamous Khiam prison. She was released on September 3, 1998, following an intense Lebanese and European campaign in her favour. In 2003, her autobiography — Resistance: My Life for Lebanon — where she relates her life in Lebanon before and after the assassination, was published. In 2011, Souha Bechara published another book, translated as "I dream of a cell of cherries" which is another autobiography, as a co-author with Cosette Elias Ibrahim, a Lebanese journalist who was also detained in the Khiam prison, and who was released on the 22nd of May 2000, when Israel pulled out of the south of Lebanon and the South Lebanon Army forces abandoned the Khiam prison.

Parts of her story were used in the 2010 film Incendies.[1][2][3]

Early life

Souha Bechara was born in Deir Mimas, Lebanon and raised in an Eastern Orthodox family. Her father, Fawaz Bechara, is a member of the Lebanese Communist Party, which Souha Bechara herself also joined secretly in 1982, the year in which Israel invaded Lebanon and was active within the bodies of the party, its resistance front Jammoul and also in Union of Lebanese Democratic Youth.

The attempted assassination

Cover of Resistance: My Life for Lebanon.

Souha Bechara left college in 1986 and joined militant activities in Lebanon. She was given the task of assassinating Lahad. Consequently, she headed south, introduced herself to Lahad's family as an aerobics instructor to his wife Minerva. Gradually, she familiarised herself with the family's members and visited them continually. In the evening of the operation, 17 November 1988, Lahad's wife invited Bechara for tea. Bechara accepted the invitation and stayed until Lahad's arrival. As she was packing her belongings and leaving, Bechara twice shot Lahad with a 5.45 mm revolver. He was shot once in the chest and once in the shoulder, then Bechara threw the gun away before his body guards arrested her.

Lahad was rushed to hospital and Bechara was detained by the security guards in the house. He spent eight weeks in hospital, suffering from serious health complications. His left arm was paralysed.

References

  1. ↑ "Seeing yourself re-made as fiction".
  2. ↑ "Lebanese civil war explodes screen Incendies".
  3. ↑ "Incendies".
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