Zahraa Koubaysi

Zahraa Qbeisi—a Southern woman who stood alone before a tank, yet in her stance, she carried an entire nation.
On January 27, 2025, following the return of Southerners to their homes—sixty days after the cessation of the Israeli aggression on Lebanon—Zahraa did not step away from the frontline. Instead, she advanced toward the occupation forces and faced the enemy with unwavering eyes.
She was wounded by treacherous bullets, but she did not retreat.
Zahraa is not only a fighter against occupation. She is a powerful voice calling for a woman’s right to resist—with dignity, with faith, and with defense of her values.
She believes that a woman does not need a weapon to be a fighter. It is enough to carry her cause, protect her dignity, and stand firm in the face of injustice.

Archive: Zahraa Koubaysi confronting the Tank

Zahraa was not an ordinary woman who passed through the scene and disappeared. She was a turning point—a moment anchored in truth, a memory etched in time when she stood, with her slender frame, before a tank that knew no mercy.
She did not scream. She did not step back. She looked the soldiers in the eye, as if to say: “You shall not pass.”
In that stance, she wasn’t just defending land—she was carrying an idea.The idea of a woman often misunderstood in many modern discourses.
Zahraa spoke openly about Western feminism and said clearly:“There, a woman’s strength is measured by how much she lets go of her femininity… her modesty… her honor. A woman is seen as strong if she gets divorced, raises her voice against a man, and rebels against everything constant… But we are not like that.”

Interview with Zahraa Koubaysi

She paused briefly, then continued in a calm yet confident voice:
"In our societies, a strong woman does not renounce her modesty, nor does she compromise her dignity to prove something to anyone. Our strength lies in our chastity, in our steadfastness, in our ability to carry values in a broken world. We believe that a woman can be educated, active, influential... but she doesn't need to strip away her faith or morals to assert her presence.

Zahraa was not only standing against the enemy on the frontlines — she was also confronting stereotypes, redefining resistance, and redistributing heroism across the details of everyday life.
She once said:
"Taking a stand isn’t just about facing a tank. It’s when a woman prepares food for the fighters, helps clean the space, or contributes to organizing relief efforts… all of that is resistance."

Archive: Displacement and Return

As for that Hajj, Zahraa could never erase him from her memory. She recalled how one day, a man carried a simple cardboard sign that read: “You will return with your heads held high.” The phrase may have seemed ordinary — to some, it might have passed unnoticed, as if it meant nothing...But in that moment, it felt like a love letter suspended in the air. Like a small promise defying war with a word, like an invisible hand reaching out to weary hearts, saying: “Hold on… there's still life in you.”
Its simplicity was its power. In the midst of a war where fire, dust, and smoke collided,
that phrase stood out as a kind of emotional shield.
It was as if it alone stood against psychological warfare and declared: “You will not break them.”
So powerful was its effect that many, throughout the Israeli aggression, waited not merely to return and reclaim what was lost — but to respond to that message.To tell the Hajj: “Tell him we came back victorious, with our heads held high.”
And amid it all, a quiet truth shone through: Heroism doesn’t always require grand equipment.
Sometimes, all it takes is holding onto your faith, believing in your cause…
offering something small in size, but immense in impact — and without even knowing it, becoming one of the true heroes.

interview with Zahraa Koubaysi

Zahraa understood that resistance isn’t only found in the Kalashnikov. It’s in the resilience of a woman who raises her children on awareness, on faith, and on preserving memory.
Zahraa didn’t draw her strength from nothing — she followed in the footsteps of women who carved the path of dignity with their wounded feet. She looked up to Lady Zaynab (peace be upon her) as a mother, a teacher, and an unbreakable role model. In her eyes, Zaynab’s sermon in Yazid’s court embodied the pinnacle of presence, dignity, and eloquence:
We carry the pain, but we do not retreat — we move forward.
Zahraa believed that a woman of resistance, if she truly embraces this path, will never be broken. To her, drawing strength from Ahl al-Bayt (peace be upon them) was not mere emotion — it was a way of living, a culture, and a method of confrontation.
And when asked about the Muslim woman, she smiles with confidence and says:
"We are not oppressed. We love life — whenever we can reach it. But we love it with modest eyes and hearts soaked in faith. We live with dignity, choose our love, and walk between life and death carrying the light of our creed."

Captured by Zeinab Fawaz

Zahraa — the woman who stood in front of the tank — was not an exception. She was a reflection of the women of this South, where every home holds a mother, a wife, or a sister writing her story to the rhythm of patience, love, and faith.

Zahraa Koubaysi

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