Al-Akhbar Lebanese Daily wrote: Zeinab Naser El-Dine… A Third Eye for Poetry, and a Mother to Beauty

Al-Akhbar Lebanese Daily wrote:

Zeinab Naser El-Dine… A Third Eye for Poetry, and a Mother to Beauty

A little girl from Sujud, [southern Lebanese town], once pelted an Israeli occupation soldier with a handful of candy refusing sweets from an occupier . Years later, she would grow into a woman who carried language, literature, and education as other forms of resistance.

Zeinab Nassereddine (1979–2026), who was killed alongside her four children in an Israeli airstrike on the southern Lebanese town of Ansar, left behind a life in which translation, poetry, and education intertwined, as well as a personal library she had been preparing to draw from for a collection of her writings.

A Child from Sujud

As a young girl from Sujud, Zeinab once threw candy at an Israeli soldier who had tried to lure the children of the occupied village with sweets. Like so many people from southern Lebanon, that childhood moment became part of a life shaped by struggle, resistance, and an enduring rejection of the enemy and its occupation.

Zeinab Naser el-Dine (1979–2026), the mother who was killed with her four children in an Israeli airstrike on Ansar in southern Lebanon days ago, embodied another story of the South: that of a woman who transformed culture into a way of life, and her passion for language into a quiet educational and literary mission. She left behind a lasting legacy, and a library that preserved the words and ideas she had gathered throughout her life.

A Home in Sujud

Zeinab was born in 1979 into a family that loved words and revered the written letter. Her upbringing nurtured in her a deep sense of awareness and commitment. Her mother was a woman of resistance, while her father, a university professor, instilled in his family from an early age the values of resistance and rejection of occupation.

In late 1984, the family was forcibly displaced from Sujud, and they remained unable to return until the liberation of southern Lebanon in 2000.

During the 1990s, Zeinab attended Al-Batoul Secondary School, where her religious and national commitment deepened. Years later, she would return to the same school as a teacher, after completing her studies at the Islamic University and earning a degree and diploma in translation with distinction, ranking among the university's top students.

The Poet and Translator

Zeinab's literary spirit emerged through the poems and writings she published in Al-Nahar Al-Shabab during the 1990s. She wrote about love and victory in a modern, distinctive style that earned the praise of the late journalist and publisher Gebran Tueni, who described her as one of the promising poets of the East.

Literature was woven into the fabric of her home. She read and discussed the novels of Naguib Mahfouz, Gabriel García Márquez, and Hanna Mina with her father, and filled the margins of her copy of Mahmoud Darwish’s complete poetry collection with her passionate notes and reflections.

Zeinab later became a French-language teacher at Al-Batoul Schools; the very schools she had once attended as a student. Through her passion and dedication, she succeeded in making her students love the French language and its literature.

Teaching, however, was only one part of her literary journey. She was also a passionate translator, translating two books on French literature for Dar Al-Rafidain. Until her final days, she remained deeply committed to translation and closely followed new developments in the field.

Her literary presence extended far beyond her own writing. She became a trusted critical voice and a cultural refuge for her family and those around her. She was the first reader, the "third eye", whose judgment her brother, poet and journalist Dr. Mohammad Naser el-Dine, deeply trusted. He would share his articles and poetry portfolios with her before publication, seeking the guidance of her mature observations and refined literary taste.

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