Linda Jumblatt

She is the daughter of Mukhtara. Her father is Fouad Jumblatt, the powerful Druze chieftain and director of the Chouf District who was murdered in an ambush on 6 August 1921. Her mother is Sitt Nazira, the leader who was able to maintain peace and stability in the Chouf Mountains during the French mandate in Lebanon, and who was able to prevent attacks by the French colonialists on the Druze community in the Chouf. Her brother is Kamal Jumblatt, the prominent Lebanese politician, philosopher, author, poet, the founder of the Progressive Socialist Party, and the leader of the Lebanese National Movement.

She married the Syrian Prince Hassan al-Atrash, who was the governor of the Syrian province of As-Suwayda, and together they had five daughters: Najwa, Noha, Ghada, Nazira, and Samar.

She has outshined thanks to a charismatic personality, just like her mother Sitt Nazira, and to a sense of joke like her brother Kamal Bey - even though he never showed it - and her loud laughter has always echoed wherever she appeared. She used to call her brother "Kamal bro" and he used to call her "Linda sis”.

With the outbreak of the war, she refused to leave her home in Badaro - Sami El Solh against the will of her brother who kept on repeating: "I am not afraid of the “big” players but rather of the “little” ones.

On May 27 of the year 1976, she was assassinated in her home, and her two daughters, Noha and Samar, were miraculously saved.

At the Hotel Dieu hospital where both sisters were treated, the doctors decided to amputate Noha’s leg to keep her alive; however, Sheikh Bashir Gemayel – a very close friend of the family- told the doctors: “If you amputate her leg, I will do the same with yours,” and therefore saved her.

Sheikh Bashir visited Kamal Jumblatt the following day with the names of those involved in the murder, and Kamal bey told him: "I do not seek revenge and I do not have anything against anyone. My father was murdered, and I forgave his murderer. I do not want the names to be known; we need to avoid negative reactions."

When her daughter Ghada arrived from Nigeria where she was living, “the smell of gunpowder was all over the house still”, she said. On the 5th of June, the Arab deterrence forces entered Lebanese territory.

On March 16 of the year 1977, Kamal Jumblatt was assassinated to join his "Linda sis" ...

Today, on the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Kamal Jumblatt, we unveil an old and lost interview of Sitt Linda conducted by the Lebanese author our dear Hanan Al-Shaykh.