ALIA RIAD EL-SOLH On this 26th of April 2007, nineteen years ago to the day, a lady such as rarely exists or will ever exist left us serenely, with that noble and tranquil feeling of having accomplished her mission. The soldiers of the Syrian Baath had, two years earlier, withdrawn from Lebanon, exactly as she had always wished, demanded, and required with all the ardour of her soul and the sharpness of her pen. Alia Riad el-Solh, eldest daughter of Riad el-Solh — that immortal architect of Lebanese independence — passed away in Paris, leaving behind a luminous, indelible trace in the hearts of all who knew her, admired her, and loved her.She was more than a woman: she embodied an era, an exigency, a supreme grace. Born in the very house where modern Lebanon was born, orphaned at the age of twelve of a father assassinated for having dared to dream of a free and sovereign nation, Alia Riad el-Solh carried from her earliest youth the torch of that heritage with a dignity and fervour that commanded universal respect. Elegant to the point of dazzling, radiant, charismatic to the point of enchantment, she presided over salons and tribunes without ever overwhelming, blending a lightning intelligence with an irresistible charm and a biting humour that disarmed even her fiercest adversaries.A journalistic genius, she penned in the greatest Lebanese, French, and American dailies incisive, elegant, unforgettable editorials — those “I am against” pieces that shook consciences and ridiculed the powerful. She feared nothing and no one: neither the Syrians, nor the Israelis, nor the fleeting fashions of politics. With the same constancy as her friend Raymond Eddé, she denounced foreign tutelage, fratricidal division, and the self-forgetting into which her beloved country risked sinking. A voluntary exile in Paris after the 1982 invasion, she never sought rest there: she turned her home into the true headquarters of the Lebanese cause, lobbying tirelessly with international bodies, refusing with sovereign elegance that her Lebanon should become “as incongruous as a Club Med in Bangladesh.”Yet beyond the intrepid political fighter, Alia Riad el-Solh was above all, and more secretly still, the empress of discreet and dignified benevolence. She never displayed her good works; she accomplished them with that innate elegance that was the very signature of her soul. She created, carried, and animated the Riad el-Solh Association, ensuring that the moral and political heritage of her father benefited new generations — those young people who, she would say with a sadness tinged with hope, left at eighteen “a little young for despair.” She believed passionately in coexistence, in freedom, in that Lebanon where one is born with the very idea of fraternity. She wanted the Lebanese to remember their vocation, never to doubt themselves nor their destiny.Those who knew her — and they were countless, of every confession and every generation — retain the memory of a light. Luminous, vibrant, she illuminated every conversation, every gathering, every heart she touched. She was offered ministerial posts, even the presidency, to break the confessional circle. She would reply with a laugh, in that striking formula that was her secret: “I might accept being elected President of the Republic…” She preferred the fertile shadow of true action to the vain light of
honours.Today, nineteen years after her departure, Alia Riad el-Solh is missed as Lebanon misses a part of its noblest soul. Yet she remains with us, more alive than ever. She represents, for all who knew her and for all who discover her through her legacy, what Lebanon possesses of the most beautiful: courage without arrogance, fidelity without fanaticism, benevolence without ostentation, love of the homeland without blindness. She teaches us that one can die in peace when one has served, tirelessly and without calculation, the cause of freedom and dignity.May her example continue to inspire the daughters and sons of this country she loved so deeply. May her memory be, for the new generations, the torch she carried with such grace and strength. Alia Riad el-Solh has not departed: she watches, serene and smiling, over this Lebanon of which she was, and will forever remain, the most faithful, the most elegant, the most indispensable daughter.Peace to her great and beautiful soul. Thanks to her, Lebanon remembers that it is possible to be at once free, united, and dignified. And that, no one will ever be able to take from it.