Topless photos and racy video footage of Lebanese Olympic Skier
Jackie Chamoun have gone viral in Lebanon, prompting a potential
government inquiry just days before the Olympic veteran is due to
compete in the women’s giant Slalom in Sochi. But government claims that
the revealing footage may have damaged Lebanon’s “reputation” have
precipitated an enormous backlash in a country that has suffered far
worse than the publication of images that wouldn’t look out of place in
the
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
The photos, taken three years ago at Lebanon’s Faraya ski resort as
part of an annual Austrian cult calendar shoot featuring male and female
Olympic ski instructors, are tame by most calendar criteria—her breasts
are concealed by a strategically placed ski or a half-zipped parka. The
accompanying behind-the-scenes video
(NSFW, to be sure) is more revealing, if chill inducing. The
22-year-old skier-turned model, clad in little more than ski boots and
thong underwear, gamely acquiesces to a photographer’s request to lounge
in the snow or climb a treacherous-looking icefall. During a brief
interview at the end of the 1:38 minute long video, Chamoun admits that
it’s much easier being a ski racer than a model because “I’m not used to
posing with no clothes on.”
The 2013 calendar
was released last year, but the video only surfaced a few days ago,
when the local Al-Jadeed television highlighted it in a news broadcast,
calling it a “scandal.” The images took Lebanese social media by storm,
and the country has spoken of little else for the past few days. Chamoun
admitted on her Facebook page
to posing for the photos “with other professional athletes”and
apologized for offending her critics. But she also implored fans and
critics alike to drop the issue so she could ski her best at Sochi. “Now
that I’m at the Olympic Games … All I can ask to each of you who saw
this, is to stop spreading it, it will really help me focusing on what
is really important now: my trainings and race,” she wrote. The post
earned her more than 13,000 Likes and an outpouring of support. “Jackie,
many Lebanese people including myself would rather see a Lebanese naked
beauty than what we see in our country,” wrote one fan. ”You have not
done anything wrong.”
Faisal Karami, Lebanon’s caretaker minister of youth and sports, was
less enthusiastic. According to Lebanon’s National News Agency, he
ordered the country’s Olympic committee to launch an inquiry and take
all steps necessary to avoid “harming Lebanon’s reputation.” That
statement elicited an even greater scandal, as Lebanese across the
spectrum ridiculed the minister for his shortsighted take on what really
ails Lebanon. In an editorial titled “What Reputation?” the English language
Daily Star
newspaper lashed out at Karami and Chamoun’s critics. “Since the
beginning of 2014, there have been no fewer than six car bombs,” the
editorial said. “There is a general lack of law and order, not to
mention the lack of a working government. Is there a better definition
of a failed state than ours? This woman, who should be a source of pride
to the country, … is being blamed for something she chose to do with
her free will, while the everyday concerns of citizens are being wholly
and fundamentally neglected.”
Lebanon’s online news portal,
NOW, was more blunt, placing Chamoun’s pinup alongside an image of a heavily armed man in camouflage under the headline “Boobs over Bullets.” And Lebanese human rights activist and blogger Melkar El Khoury was apoplectic in a recent post: “In
a country that is overburdened with debts, embezzlement and corruption,
political deadlocks and terrorism, drug and human trafficking,
uncontrolled spread of personal weapons, economic decay and
unemployment… Jackie’s [rear end] is undermining Lebanon’s image and
sending the wrong message?”
Allegations of hypocrisy aside, the “scandal” has caused a bit of
head scratching among many Lebanese. Yes, many parts of Lebanon are
conservative, but billboards spanning the length of the country’s
highways feature cosmetic surgery and laser hair removal clinic ads that
reveal almost as much as Chamoun’s photo shoot. While topless bathing
is frowned upon at most beach clubs, a summer stroll down Beirut’s
seaside corniche offers a wide spectrum of female dress, from ground
skimming shapeless black veils to high-heels and hot pants. That
tolerance for diversity, forged in the crucible of a 15-year sectarian
civil war, is a fundamental part of Lebanon’s reputation as the most
liberal and fun-loving country in the Middle East, no matter what crises
come its way. The suggestion that an Olympic skier’s brief foray into
modeling is a scandal is what undermines Lebanon’s reputation, not the
act itself.
