Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – The Lebanese artist, Elissa, responded to a video clip circulating of a cleric criticizing the appearance of girls on the beach in the Jounieh area known in Lebanon, linking this to the parliamentary elections that the country will witness soon.
Sure, we want our sheikh, we want to see our daughters on the beaches of Jounieh and go back to see the lido at Casino du Liban, and we want to dress in our shoes and we want to dance and sing this is Lebanon, my love, not Iran! Those who have died have died https://t.co/GDAPXBu9xf
And the cleric says in the circulating video: “Whoever wants to see his daughters on the beach of Air..goes to vote for them..this story has started..whoever wants to see his sons in brothels and drugs also goes to elect them..”
Elissa republished the video clip on her Twitter page, commenting: “Sure, we want our sheikh, we want to see our daughters on the beaches of Jounieh and go back to see the Lido in the Casino of Lebanon and we want to wear our clothes and we want to dance and sing this is Lebanon, my love, not Iran! Those who ashamed died.”
In statements regarding the elections, Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati stressed “the importance of preserving the prestige of the state and the dignity of security institutions to ensure the protection of citizens… We support human rights and freedom of opinion, but without any transgression that negatively affects. We must fortify ourselves to protect the state.” And prevent the country from being taken to the abyss.”
For his part, the President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun, stressed, at the opening of the meeting of the Higher Defense Council, “the security and administrative coordination to complete the parliamentary elections without any problem.” He called for “the adoption of rules for the conduct of media coverage of the elections, and cooperation with foreign observers and the electoral supervision body.”