IWSAW and the Alumni Relations Office in collaboration with the Alumni Association-BCW Chapter at the Lebanese American University hosted a public screening of the award winning film by Zeina Daccache “Scheherazade’s Diary”, on December 9, 2014 at LAU’s Beirut campus.

Filmed throughout a ten-month drama therapy/theatre project set up in 2012 in Baabda prison by Zeina Daccache, the gripping and tragicomic documentary features women inmates who challenge the society that oppresses women. The film journeys into the quotidian of prison life and follows the “murderers of husbands, adulterers and drug felons”, storytellers as they rehearse for the show, and share testimonials of domestic violence, forlorn romance and deprivation of motherhood. Through their artistic journey, the women inmates hold up a mirror to Lebanese society, implicating us all in oppression that often leads to crime.

The event was attended by activists, members of various NGOs in Lebanon, as well as LAU alumni. A lively discussion followed the screening. Ms. Lama Daccache from Catharsis as well as an ex-inmate who took part in the film answered all the curious questions raised by the audience.