News from Civsy, based on human monitoring, generative AI tools and retrieval-augumented real time data searchThis April 2025 incident around Hanane Hajj Ali’s play Jogging – Theatre in Progress at the Lebanese International University in Saida reveals a deepening pattern of moral panic, online incitement and institutional retreat that threatens artistic freedom in Lebanon.
The performance in Saida
On 16 April 2025, Hajj Ali presented Jogging at the LIU Theatre in Saida before an audience of students, the performance was followed by an open discussion, and no objections or disruptions were reported inside the hall at the time. The event had been formally welcomed by the university, which had approved the hosting of the play as part of its cultural activities, continuing a long Lebanese and international touring history of the work since the mid-2010s.
University backlash and moral framing
Two days later, the LIU administration issued a statement denouncing the event in broad moral and religious terms, it claimed that the performance contradicted “moral values” and insulted religious rituals, without even naming Jogging or Hanane Hajj Ali. The statement further announced that the university had begun “taking the necessary measures to hold accountable everyone who abused or failed in supervision or implementation” of the performance, effectively shifting responsibility onto internal staff and distancing the institution from a show it had itself endorsed.
Online incitement and Saida’s “specificity”
On 22 April, the social media page “Waynyye al Dawle”, which presents itself as a non-state media platform pursuing criminals and “thugs”, published a post claiming that student protests had erupted at LIU after the hosting of a “controversial” play containing sexual connotations and mockery of religious rituals. The page attached a short video montage of two isolated scenes from Jogging lifted out of context, and immediately afterwards a hostile online campaign escalated, targeting the work, the artist, the university and one professor with threats, intimidation and calls to defend religion, morals and the “specificity” of Saida, including calls for protests in front of the city’s mosques.
Artistic counter mobilisation and official support
The attack came even though Jogging had been performed to a full house in Saida’s Ishbilia Theatre in 2018 without objection and had long been recognised as a landmark feminist work that openly treats taboo subjects around the female body, religion and war. In response, a group of artists held a press conference on 6 May at Dawar el Shams Theatre under the banner “A Gathering of Workers in Art and Culture”, calling on authorities to protect freedom of expression, cultural spaces and the safety of artists, and announcing that they would pursue legal action against those who incited and threatened on the basis of the play, stressing that the affair concerns the entire cultural atmosphere and not only Hajj Ali’s case. Hajj Ali also reported the incident to the Syndicate for theatre, TV and cinema actors, and the Director General of the Ministry of Culture, Ali Al Samad, publicly expressed full support to her in an interview, condemning campaigns aimed at limiting artists’ freedom of expression and signalling that this controversy is viewed as a dangerous precedent for cultural life in Lebanon.
References:
L’Orient-Le Jour, “Controversy over a play in Saida, When a prayer becomes a scandal,” 10 May 2025.[today.lorientlejour]
American Theatre, “Hanane Hajj Ali, ‘Jogging’ for Survival in Beirut.”[americantheatre]
Facebook event and documentation of Jogging – Theatre in Progress at Ishbilia Theatre, Saida, 2018.[facebook]
The Theatre Times, “In Conversation with Hanane Hajj Ali.”[thetheatretimes]
Civsy incident description and timeline of events, including references to “Waynyye al Dawle,” the Dawar el Shams press conference, the Syndicate complaint and the Ali Al Samad interview.
