BEIRUT: Billboards of dead politicians and fighters line Beirut s streets in a stark reminder that the concept of martyrdom still pervades a Lebanon rife with sectarian loyalties.<br/><br/>Tuesday is Martyrs Day, commemorating the hanging of Lebanese nationalists by the Ottomans in Beirut on May 6, 1916. Nearly a century later, many still view dying for their beliefs as a noble sacrifice.<br/> <br/>Lebanon, which was ravaged by 15 years of brutal civil war that ended in 1990, is going through a new cycle of violence. The past three years have been marked by the assassinations of several anti-Syrian public figures and a war between Hezbollah and Israel that nearly devastated the country.<br/><br/>Both the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition led by Hezbollah and the ruling coalition, backed by the West and most Arab states, are keen to bestow the title of martyr on their dead.<br/><br/>Ghina Zalzali s husband was a Hezbollah fighter killed in the war with Israel. For her, "martyrdom in its Islamic interpretation has a special place with God. There are seven heavens and not every person is at the same level," implying that martyrs reach the highest level.<br/><br/>The Koran characterizes those who die for God not as slain but rather as living eternally blessed in heaven.<br/><br/>In Islamic tradition, the bodies of the dead are washed before burial but the body of a martyr is considered pure and does not need to be cleaned.<br/> <br/>Ghina, 29, said she knew her husband was "in the resistance". Before getting married, he told her to carefully consider the consequences of that, saying he could "be injured or go blind." Yet Ghina married Mustafa, because she wanted to marry "someone with honour and a generous spirit with a goal in life. He was not willing to just sit idly by and watch his land being occupied."<br/><br/>Mustafa was willing to die for his cause, she says, but he didn t aspire to it. "One who wants to die does not continue to buy books and read and expand his knowledge and develop himself," she said.<br/> <br/>Ghina says she is filled with pride when people refer to her husband as a martyr and is happy when she sees his picture hanging in the street.<br/>
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