It has been another year since Hussein Mroueh, Lebanese Marxist philospher and writer was assassinated on the late afternoon of February 17, 1987. His death was a silent passage from revolution to martyrdom as all true fighters.. Not a million of the population to demostrate for him, not a super power to back a government for his sake and impose an international tribunal, not a "we want the truth" call. He just passed, and those who remember him are the ones who seek to know their history, "the history they will lean on for the future" as he told one of his students in 1975.
I visited him last December for the first time. Such an irony for a Marxist to reside in his eternal rest among the graves of the holy shrine of Set Zainab, a Shia "Maqam" in the outskirts of Damascus. I was given a long black cloak to wear, which I placed on my almost shaved head, and my camera backpack. I walked through the open blue tiled walls of the shrine, where I saw women and children praying and crying. I walked past the backyard gate and found myself in a poor street full of beggars and carts with holy clay rosaries and praying carpets.
When I reached the graveyard, ten minutes away from the shrine, I was filled with an ancient grief.. "Hussein Mroueh, 1987", I said to the guardian of the graveyard. He tried to remember, and then walked past me to lead the way. We found him near the other end of the yard, close to the fence. He was abandoned.
The guardian removed the soil and dead leaves from the top of the grave and poured water to clean it, then left me to my peace. There he was.. Jeddo Abou Nizar..I cried as if he had died the day before.. I cried my heart out..
I visited him last December for the first time. Such an irony for a Marxist to reside in his eternal rest among the graves of the holy shrine of Set Zainab, a Shia "Maqam" in the outskirts of Damascus. I was given a long black cloak to wear, which I placed on my almost shaved head, and my camera backpack. I walked through the open blue tiled walls of the shrine, where I saw women and children praying and crying. I walked past the backyard gate and found myself in a poor street full of beggars and carts with holy clay rosaries and praying carpets.
When I reached the graveyard, ten minutes away from the shrine, I was filled with an ancient grief.. "Hussein Mroueh, 1987", I said to the guardian of the graveyard. He tried to remember, and then walked past me to lead the way. We found him near the other end of the yard, close to the fence. He was abandoned.
The guardian removed the soil and dead leaves from the top of the grave and poured water to clean it, then left me to my peace. There he was.. Jeddo Abou Nizar..I cried as if he had died the day before.. I cried my heart out..
7 comments:
Dear Dima,
Why not start a real investigation about this assassination? In the end, I think that the Lebanese war was basically frozen for a while and never really resolved. The way is to look back at things and try to find the whole story back...
Dear Dima,
Why not open a real new investigation? It is so sad to be living in a freezer where everything is just waiting to be resolved, but there is never the intention to look back at things.
Very touching to read this text...
I have just learnt that the day Hussein Mroweh was assassinated, the family was advised not to take the murder to court. The one who advised them - back then a very high ranking leader in the communist party who is no longer member, K.M.- said there was no need!
It is a real shock to see a dream, I've been struggling with, comes true.
One of the things that was keeping me from realizing such web page is the big question.
Who suggested not to raise this issue to court for sure had and still has his reasons???
But anyway, the answer is not so hard, the hard thing is join our efforts, of all the lovers of freedom, all kinds of freedom - to live in peace, to think and express loudly without constraints, etc. to join our efforts to prevent the black forces that assassinated Abu Nizar and others from prevailing using the freedom titles and symbols.
It is a real shock to see a dream, I've been struggling with, comes true.
One of the things that was keeping me from realizing such web page is the big question.
Who suggested not to raise this issue to court for sure had and still has his reasons???
But anyway, the answer is not so hard, the hard thing is join our efforts, of all the lovers of freedom, all kinds of freedom - to live in peace, to think and express loudly without constraints, etc. to join our efforts to prevent the black forces that assassinated Abu Nizar and others from prevailing using the freedom titles and symbols.
It was such a pleasure to read this. Spending time in investigation just gives the people who killed him their goal.. I guess it's way better to spend time to proof his words are still alive, he is still alive! I revive him by spreading him, not barry him by following an endless investigation.
Sorry for the passion Dima!
RIP Hussein Mroueh
Spending time on investigation is for justice. He is not a prophet and I would like to not see him this way, but his killers are murderers and I see no reason why they should not be punished.
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