and you are of course watching the news live from berlin coming up our reporter series meets the women protesting against the political establishment in lebanon. thanks for joining us for world news at the top of the. to. my 1st vice like mosul sewing machine. where i come from women are almost by this social influence even something as simple as learning how to write a bicycle isn't. since i was a little god i wanted to have a bicycle off my home and he took me mystic and. finally they gave up and went on by me on my cycle and returns because sewing machine sewing i suppose was more apt procreates for those than writing advice as knowledge i want to meet shall from

those women back home would volunteer by their duties and social norms and inform them about deadbeats and write. my name is the amount of people home and a war that's easy to. lose. well run they call in arabic the word means revolution people in lebanon been told testing for weeks. christina a 21 year old student is on the front line in the capital beirut. currently right now it is doing that and being. i mean at the end of the day what is the point of going and study on the job like.

it's early morning in the mountains on the outskirts of beirut this is where christina who studies media at a private university lives with her parents that the family is well to do but they're worried because living conditions are getting worse in lebanon for the middle class is too there are few prospects for young people no. powers our country going to thrive if everybody keeps leaving but also how are we going to stay here if there's nothing for us to stay for for me revolution is yes getting together putting pressure on the government tried to change everything but

for me i don't like it when they block roads and when they tires and when when the very day. when roadblocks were erected christina and her brother were caught and. it brought back memories of the civil war she was just a young girl when whole districts were separated from one another. she started crying and hugged the earth because. i mean you can't not i guess when you've lived the things they've lived you can't not have this fear of civil war breaking out again because i mean it's not something pleasant so yeah you can see it i mean my mom is a little bit. through nothing yet i always say oh when i was there even younger. i was much tougher when i became a mother. i know. that's

before the civil war. and yet even though i was never afraid but i think it's there you know. you still want to have to live with again yeah of course i don't want you to live it. not me i don't want you to live it there were many women. but like despite her mother's fears christina will not stop protesting. people start at the today's demonstration is said to be big she's going with her friend gianna whom she knows from university they had a similar childhood living with their families in the gulf states for a long time because the situation was so insecure in lebanon. this is quite typical there are thought to be about 14000000 lebanese people living abroad and only about 6000000 in lebanon itself. but for now. i actually really want to

mean. like i saw myself. continuing my life abroad and there's like this newfound newfound love for 11 on it and i think. in the past few weeks i've grown more attached to it than i ever have but. there is chaos but this time it's caused by the protesters they have chosen to demonstrate on the national holiday to show the government how much support they have. the middle classes are rising up against politicians who have failed to keep the state from going bankrupt. the frustration has been bubbling for decades but if i'm not mistaken it was because of all the unnecessary taxing that started the make some expert in the dark saying. things like cigarettes. the protestors are also angry

about widespread corruption. this entire district in central beirut was developed at the behest of the former prime minister who profited massively at the cost of local business owners. if all of this is closed all these aren't even like. taken. most of the population could never afford to live here it's dead capital for the owners. as things stand now there are more cats than people. but there were people who lived near had stores here before all of this happened and they would either force them out of their homes pay them a small fee. and everything that happened here just cost or they're like renting out for god knows how much higher the price so it's really it's absolute corruption

it's not fair. the main reproach the protesters have against lebanon's ruling class is corruption they say politicians have led the country to bankruptcy the state has massive debts with interest rates consuming half of government revenue the infrastructure has suffered all over the country there's no reliable water or electricity supply. the financial crisis is very noticeable in stores where prices have shot up. to the. kind of use of coffee used to cost 2000 lebanese pounds that was 2500. and this change used to cost 2000 now was 2750. prices started going up weeks ago and continue to rise

with the who fear to hold it out again and if you and 5 or $600.00 a week how can you afford this. show and what i used to spend a month is now not enough to cover a week or so you can see such men you know. i recently heard that we're running out of grain which is massive. if we keep running out of these things and we don't have the money to import them of course it's terrifying it's very scary because they're going to be families of people who can't . get flu mist so this is another reason why she and the other protesters refused to give up. today their meeting opposite they've moved in. cultural center and museum about the 15 year long civil war which killed 150000 people between 197-5990. today's

protests are about unity bringing together all the 18 officially recognized religious groups in lebanon the protesters are walking along the former line of demarcation the green line which once divided east and west beirut separating mostly christian and mostly muslim neighborhoods. can extend. yet. get out they saying get out you are all corrupt. and then they continue on to martyr square which existed well before the civil war and commemorates martyrs executed there under the ottomans it's in the heart of the capital now former activists and people affected by the civil war are also commemorated here. we go. to my grandmother and her 2 friends and she believes in change to basically all those you see you.

soon i think now. she did live through the civil war as well. although she had to carry in belonging i think she just gave up on it and she sees me and her daughter were all you know all fed up with the system so she gets to use sectarian divisions are what. contributed to the civil war and the aftermath and the. bit that they paid the big role but for us it's more about breaking this this. ridiculous wall down there. john is a druze with palestinian roots christina is a christian with a syrian palestinian and italian roots but they both consider themselves simply lebanese. as does christina's boyfriend omar who is a sunni muslim this has logistical implications more than anything else it's not an issue for the us but sometimes they're in for

a bit more conservative. as the truth of the so what happens when 2 people from different want to get married they have to change their religion on paper and that is where. a lot of people who are very informally and they just do it for the crowd if you simply think american news but it's really from the pond by yeah the rest of the family usually when someone wants to convert so you know like why do why are you going to convert more than why why don't they convert for you. if mixed couples have children they automatically take on the father's religion in this case and he children would be muslim like omar generally christina's christian parents except him. but i think they like no one no they love him they love remove my mom will sometimes. see christina i love all if only he were it will only look like i know one of the accepted for the person you are though. this would not be an issue

at all if civil marriage existed in lebanon and women generally had more rights but according to the world economic forum's gender gap report lebanon ranks $140.00 out of 149 we kind of fetish are the idea of a woman as a mother but we don't really go beyond that and see that she is an individual and a human emotions she can achieve just as much as a man. so the women here are also fighting for their rights and using a particular strategy if the situation gets dicey they go out onto the front line in a calculated move to contain the violence they hope to keep the peace by standing between the police and male demonstrators and effective stressful tactics. i was crying and screaming at them to stop telling little enough is enough all the fights that i've seen that happen between men and they always happen over some

cinemas understanding that escalates so what we are trying to do is just kind of calm everyone down. overall the protests have been peaceful and the idea is for them to continue in the same spirit. christina and her fellow demonstrators know that there can only be real change if they show they are determined. it's going to last until we get what we want. which is going to take time and i think it's important for people to realize that it's going to take time but i think it's also important for the people in power to realize that we will not stop until we get what we want if it drags on till christmas but until christmas day here i will bring a. lot. of love. to

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