The Great Syrian Revolt and Gender Models amongst Male and Female Toughs of the Northern Bekaa

This article discusses events of the Great Syrian Revolt (1925–7) against the French mandate’s Armée du Levant away from the main battlefields in Syria proper. It discusses events across the Lebanese border in the northern Bekaa district of Baalbek-Hermel, a peripheral area marginalized in the historiography of the revolt. This previously untold story integrates the colonial archives with the private papers of the rebel fighter Tawfiq Hawlu Haydar, oral interviews, and a collection of rare Arabic books and articles. I closely analyse the activism of Tawfiq and his mother, Shahina, in the revolt and the role of their senior relatives. Through the lens of gendered modes of behaviour, the article seeks to uncover the culture of resistance among the local population. I demonstrate how manly ideals of pride, chivalry, land, and honour functioned as mobilizing ethics – rather than remnants of outdated traditionalist values – pushing men to fight against the odds. Simultaneously and unexpectedly, these ideals were adaptable enough to authorize women’s transgressions of gender hierarchies in defence of the community.