I'd intended to chat about Arab poetry and storytelling in my attempt to appreciate the Arab culture more. However the response from the women were unexpected and full of passion and resolve! They spoke with gratification and pain, strong yet impassioned.

"We raise our children on the love of Imam Hussein. We have him. He's our revolution against oppression and against racism! Sayed Moussa taught us that if we lose our children, we cry for them, we feel sad, but we have a cause and land we have to protect. A lot of Lebanese people say that we Shi'a believe in the culture of death. On the contrary, we love life! We want our children to be raised on this land. Like our men are defending this country, our children will defend this country! We are not leaving this land for any Zionist! The Arabs we have are like the Zionists that are standing with Israel. Our land was watered with the blood of martyrs and inshallah the crops on our land will grow because of the blood of martyrs, not because of water. Like olive trees, we will stand strong on the land we are staying and we will not leave. Let the Israelis know that they have the aircraft as weaponry, our faith is our weapon! I would like to send my condolsences to all the mothers that have lost someone but thank God they gave birth to heroes that we are proud off . May God be with them and inshallah we will be victorious for sure!"

"22 Arab countries weren’t moved by what happened in Gaza! With everything that happened??? Yesterday in Sour (Tyre) a massacre happened including a pregnant woman, that didn’t move them! Are those Arabs ? No! Those are a disgrace to Arabs! They're not Arab or Muslims or Christians. Go check Tyre, check the Christian neighbourhood and how they are taking in everyone! This is humanity. This is our land Jabal Amel, the land of Imam Moussa Sader, the land of Nabih Berri, the land of Sayed Hassan who sacrificed his blood for us! The land of poets, land of scholars, all arabs are