Sethrida Geagea
| Sethrida Geagea ستريدا جعجع | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Sethrida Tawk May 15, 1967 Bcharre, Lebanon |
| Political party | Lebanese Forces |
| Spouse(s) | Samir Geagea (m. 1991) |
| Education |
Lebanese American University Political Science |
Sethrida Tawk Geagea (Arabic: ستريدا طوق جعجع), is a Lebanese politician and MP representing the district of Bsharri.[1]
Early life
Sethrida Geagea hails from a prominent Maronite Lebanese Tawk family that owned businesses in West Africa (Ghana). Her political activism began while at the Lebanese American University (LAU) and it led to meeting the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF), Samir Geagea, whom she married in 1991. She earned a BS in Political Science in 1994.
Political career
When the Lebanese Forces Party was disbanded in 1994 and her husband Samir Geagea was imprisoned, the Syrian hegemonic control dealt the party a crippling blow. However, Mrs. Geagea’s challenge of that reality ushered in a period of struggle and resistance in the face of political intimidation, arrests, and prosecutions. She fought, along with party's fellows, for more than eleven years until the Syrian forces withdrew from Lebanon and until her husband was released from prison and Lebanon regained its freedom. She challenged the parties that tried to distort the history and image of the Lebanese Forces. She succeeded in maintaining its unity and its historical line for which thousands of martyrs have sacrificed their lives in order to preserve Lebanon’s independence, freedom, and sovereignty. She joined the Kornet Shehwan Gathering that operated under the sponsorship of the Maronite Patriarch and in which The Lebanese Forces played a prominent role. As a leading LF figure, she participated in elections involving unions, student bodies, municipalities, and other cultural associations. The impressive results she has achieved prove that the LF is still an active and efficient force in the Lebanese equation despite the ban imposed on it for years. Sethrida Geagea joined the Bristol Gathering that became later on the March 14 Movement, the spearhead of the second independence struggle of 2005. Sethrida Geagea led the party in the 2005 parliamentary elections, which resulted in a bloc of six MPs from the LF Party and the freedom of Samir Geagea. She is a member of the Lebanese Maronite League.
She is very open to cooperate with Civil society organizations. She has also joined many road safety interventions that contributed positively for road safety in Lebanon that was organized by YASA (youth association for social awareness). (http://www.yasa.org/) She supported the efforts that led to the new Lebanese traffic law #243 that was enacted by the Lebanese parliament in 2012.