The Explosion of Beirut’s Port Told Through the Lives of Women in “All She Lost”

In the summer of 2020, Lebanon was trying to contain both a global pandemic and an internal economic crisis when, on August 4th, a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate at the port of Beirut caught fire and exploded in one of the largest non-nuclear blasts in history. The blast killed at least 220 people, injured more than 6000 residents and caused $8 billion in damages. Journalist Dalal Mawad was living in Beirut at the time, and her new book “All She Lost,” examines the event, told through stories of women who lost children, husbands and family members in the explosion and struggled through the financial and political collapse in Lebanon that ensued. We talk to Mawad about what their stories reveal about the treatment of women in Lebanon and how the blast’s survivors are seeking justice for those they lost.

Guests:

Dalal Mawad, journalist

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