Linda Matar Honored in Lebanon

From the Daily Star:

Linda Matar, one of Lebanon’s most influential women, was honored for her career of service in Lebanon and the Arab world, in a ceremony held by the League of Lebanese Women’s Rights.

Matar has been president of the LLWR since 1953, the year Lebanese women finally obtained the right to vote. She has fought for women’s rights in Lebanon and the Arab world for the past half century, dedicating her life to this uneasy struggle.

Her journey has been nothing short of extraordinary. Throughout the years, she presided over the Lebanese Council of Women from 1996 until 2000 and oversaw reforms that saw the group become a vocal element of local civil society.

She was also a member of the Social Economic Council of Lebanon, a position that allowed her to be one of the most effective advocates for women’s rights in the country. Matar was a leading campaigner for rectifying the woefully low percentage of women in Parliament, running unsuccessfully for the legislature in 1996 and 2000.

She has taken part in over 50 Arab and international conferences, including the UN conference on women in Mexico in 1975, and the 1995 World Conference on Women in Beijing.