Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index

Solange Gemayel

Solange Gemayel is a political figure and former First Lady of Lebanon. The widow of former President-elect Bachir Gemayel (1947-1982), who was assassinated by terrorists days before he was due to take office in 1982, she helped to found the Bachir Gemayel Foundation, to keep his legacy alive.

A Maronite Christian, Solange Tutunji married Bashir Gemayel in 1977. Their first daughter, Maya, was born the following year. She was tragically killed in 1980, by a car bomb intended for her father. A second daughter, Youmna, was born in 1980, and a son, Nadim, in 1982, only months before his father's assassination. Solange Gemayel has brought up her two surviving children to carry on their late father's legacy, and Nadim, who recently turned 21, has indicated his intention to follow in the footsteps of his father and mother by participating in the political process.

Solange Gemayel strongly opposes the Syrian military occupation of Lebanon, and is an enemy of the Syrian-backed regime which took power in 1990. She is strongly pro-Western, and in 2003 she rattled the political establishment by publicly supporting U.S. President George W. Bush in his decision to attack Iraq and depose the government of Saddam Hussein. She also joined her son, Nadim, in endorsing Hikmat Deeb of the radical Free Patriotic Movement in an important byelection. This put her (and her son) at odds with her brother-in-law, former President Amine Gemayel, who endorsed the more moderate Henry Héloù. Héloù won, but by a much smaller margin than had been expected.