Lebanon, despite its small size, plays a hugely important role in international relations, culture, migration and balancing a tightrope position between East and West. Lebanon is also an incredibly diverse, vibrant yet troubled country that is currently undergoing a period of intense disquiet, financial meltdown and an uncertain future. 

Within these complexities, Lebanon's citizens actively participate in a society that often seems at odds with itself: an LGBTQ movement that's thriving, openly seeks to implement political reforms, while simultaneously, Iranian backed Hezbollah runs its own militia, social security and is often described as 'mini state' within Lebanon. Likewise, Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon have had to learn to survive and try to preserve their societies in exile, while a plethora of Christian communities and their parties wish to preserve a way of life that is not unlike that in mainland Europe. Meanwhile, the Lebanese Diaspora has an important psychological and economic influence on Lebanese society, in ways that are often subconscious but ever present. 

Jasmin Lillian Diab works at the intersection of three important elements of Lebanese society: Gender, Migration and Conflict. In this interview, Jasmin and I discuss life as a woman in Lebanon, how the LGBTQ movement maintains a unique position dancing between liberty and repression, the Lebanese 'Braindrain', refugees and the future for Lebanon as it contends with its worst financial and economic crisis in decades.