Scores of Chouf residents turned out Sunday to greet a procession of female cyclists taking part in “Follow the Women,” a two-week bike tour of the Middle East, with stops in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank and Jerusalem. The event, which has been held four times since 2004, is aimed at drawing attention to the suffering of Palestinian women and the need for a peace agreement.

Many of the Chouf residents who showed up on Sunday were responding to the request of Progressive Youth Organization (PYO) International Secretary Hussam Harb. The PYO, the youth movement of Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party, has been involved with the bike tour from the start. This year, it was the event’s main funder and coordinator.

The idea for “Follow the Women” originated with Briton Detta Regan. Regan first met a PYO representative at a youth workshop in France in 2003 and shared her self-described “crazy idea” of biking for peace. By April 2004, 120 riders were cruising around Lebanon. All the members of the “Follow the Women,” including Regan, are volunteers, and any country can appoint a coordinator to build a team for the event.

Making it happen

The first “Follow the Women” peace tour happened in 2004. In 2005, the event, usually held in April or May, was postponed due to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. “Directly after the assassination, some people in the country were trying to be pessimistic about the situation in Lebanon and that there is a culture of death and assassination,” said Harb. “So we did want to insist [that] this city, Beirut, is a symbol of life, a culture of life.” Because the event was so late in the year, the group decided to cancel the 2006 ride. It resumed again in 2007, adding stops in Jericho, Ramallah and Jerusalem, places the bikers plan to visit this year again.

As the primary local organizer for the bike tour, the PYO arranged pretty much everything at Sunday’s event, from picking participants up at the airport to mapping the route of the two rides in Lebanon (through the Chouf Mountains on Sunday and in the Bekaa Valley on Monday). The PYO also arranged for police and army presence along the route. (Police escorts followed the women everywhere in Lebanon, even while they rode in tour buses.) Indeed, the PYO logo adorned cars and busses in equal measure alongside the “Follow the Women” logo. “The organization has been great, they deserve a medal,” said Helle Jonassen, a rider from Denmark.

While Harb would not provide a figure, he did say that the PYO spent a considerable amount on the event and that participation fees had not come close to covering the entire trip. Earlier bike tours had additional funding from sponsors like the “I Love Life” campaign and the Hariri foundation, and this year, Beirut by Bike offered to supply bikes for the entire journey. They are also working with bikers to coordinate cycling safety throughout the rest of the trip. And, in Lebanon, they worked with the PYO to map routes and plan safety strategies.

The Ride

Over 250 women from some 30 countries participated in the bike tour this year. They began their ride Sunday morning in the Chouf town of Baakline, which was filled with well-wishers thanks to an appearance by Harb on TV a week prior to the event, during which he encouraged residents to come out and support the women. In Chehim, around 100 spectators – including a band and dancers – greeted the group.

Riders both this year and in years past, according to news reports, cited the warmth and friendliness of locals as a meaningful part of the trip. Attracted by a chance to promote peace in the region and ride in solidarity as women in support of women, many participants also said they wanted a first-hand look at places from which they only hear bad news.

Canadian Myrle van der Zanden, a returning participant, said that the West Bank had made an impression on her, and that she uses the experience to educate others. “I try to explain to people the conditions Palestinians live under,” which is under-reported in the media, she said.
      
At the end of the day, that is the whole point of this cycling adventure – to advance the cause of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. “If there’s no peace in Palestine, there’s no peace in the rest of the world,” Reagan told participants at the opening ceremony at UNESCO Palace. “They deserve, and have the right, to go back to the rest of their country.”