In Lebanon, I encountered some of the most hospitable people and a rich and diverse history dating back thousands of years. There are few places in the world where one can snorkel in an underwater archeological reserve where Alexander the Great built the famous causeway connecting Lebanon to the Phoenician island of Tyre, and, later that evening, be invited to iftar to break the fast of Ramadan by a kind family happy to share their customs with an unfamiliar foreigner. There are even fewer places where one can revel in the modern metropolis of Beirut at the same spot that the ancient Romans drafted the Justinian Code at the world’s first law school.

Beirut has much in common with New York City, as both are large cosmopolitan cities with a sizeable percentage of inhabitants hailing from across the globe. Of course, there are also some stark contrasts. These differences are what inspired my intensive research project, which has paved the way for an independent study project later this year.

I decided to focus my research on how confessionalism (the political and institutional power divided proportionally among religious subcommunities) in Lebanon maintains a divided class structure. I analyzed the ruling class’s interest in maintaining sectarian laws that are used as exploitative measures against the working class. In particular, I focused on foreign workers and refugees.

When I began observing the everyday flow of Lebanese society, a few elements struck a chord within me. The first was the material status that many people aim to attain, much like in other parts of the world. However, one of the most popular status symbols, which can be seen everywhere in Beirut, is keeping a female foreign domestic servant, generally of Filipino, Sri Lankan, Indian or African descent.

These women, many of whom do not have work permits, are easily exploited, abused, and forced to work long hours with little compensation. Many cannot leave their employers’ premises and are not given a single day off. Moreover, recent reports show the main cause of death for foreign domestic servants is suicide. While many of the reported deaths were suicides where women turned to death as an escape from constant abuse, other deaths have resulted from desperate attempts to flee or homicides made to look like suicides, sometimes involving pregnant foreign domestic servants. Furthermore, in the women’s prison, about 50 percent of the inmates are foreign domestic servants accused of various “crimes” related to their jobs.

A second element that interested me was the treatment of displaced people living here. Palestinians are the largest refugee group, and the government forces them to live in the abysmal conditions of refugee camps. They are denied basic human rights, like the right to work and own property, as well as access to education, healthcare, and legal aid. A quick glance at this group’s classification in the eyes of the law–as foreigners rather than refugees–shows they are discriminated against. As in many other countries’ laws, foreigners are subject to the “rule of reciprocity,” which means a foreigner enjoys the legal protections the host country’s nationals enjoy in the foreigner’s country of origin. As for Palestinian refugees, the rule of reciprocity is a method of legally excluding them from most sectors of civil society.

To understand the ease at which such groups are exploited, one must understand confessionalism as stipulated in the Lebanese constitution. This was at the root of the 15-year-long civil war, which contributed to the maintenance of power retained by the ruling class, by distracting the legislature from focusing on the gradual abolishment of confessionalism (as intended by the constitution’s drafters and explicitly stipulated in the preamble). Moreover, confessionalism allows for collective self-government by each sect within the greater scheme of the government, and the interests in maintaining the sectarian balance have taken precedence over government protection of vulnerable groups. For example, one of the main arguments against allowing the almost half a million Palestinians basic civil rights is the fear they will become citizens, and since they are predominantly Sunni Muslim, their numbers will throw off the Muslim/Christian ratio the Christians are fighting to preserve.

I plan on conducting my independent study next semester on this topic, as a summer of researching these issues allowed me merely to scratch the surface of a region where the repercussions of a 1926 enactment of a communitarian-based constitution continue to cause turmoil today. Despite the critiques I’ve highlighted, however, I left with fond memories of a summer incomparable to anything I have experienced. I won’t forget the friends I’ve made and the beauty of the great Levant whose history dates back thousands of years yet is still very much alive in its architecture and ancient texts. In the end, I will consider myself very lucky if I get to return to this captivating place someday, Inshallah.