From Fighters To Actors: How Theatre Is Healing Rival Youths, Divided Communities

In the conflict-scarred city of Tripoli, young men once on opposite sides of street battles found themselves standing together on stage, acting out their own stories. That unlikely reconciliation effort, led by Lebanese activist Lea Baroudi, became a striking example she shared at the“WPS Agenda & the Arab World” panel in Abu Dhabi.

Baroudi, founder of March Lebanon, told the audience at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA) that her experience shows why the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda must be "localised" and rooted in lived realities, rather than imposed through abstract global frameworks.

“The language of the WPS agenda is very far from the actual realities on the ground. If you use it with communities, it might even create resistance,” Baroudi said, explaining how her work in Tripoli revealed the need to connect with people through culture and empathy rather than policy jargon.

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She recalled how her organisation began by working in areas where fighters were active, using art, theatre and dialogue as tools of engagement. What started as small cultural workshops eventually brought young men from rival neighbourhoods together to perform on the same stage.

“Through theatre, these young men started acting their own stories and the stories of the war. They moved from being fighters to actors,” Baroudi said. According to her, this transformation was not only personal but also communal. Former fighters went on to rebuild streets they once battled over and eventually became local mediators.“They became the bridge between communities. When a clash would erupt, they were the ones stopping it,” she told the panel.

Baroudi cautioned that while global frameworks like the WPS agenda are essential, they risk alienating communities if not translated into local realities.“The real conflict is not always political or ideological-it's also emotional. People carry humiliation, exclusion and trauma. If you don't address these, you cannot build peace.”

Baroudi admitted that her idea was initially met with disbelief.“When I first went to the young men who had been fighting and asked them to come on stage and perform in a play inspired by their lives, I was laughed at for six months,” she recalled.“I kept going back and forth, trying to gain access to these fighters, to convince them. Finally, after half a year, I managed to hold auditions and grouped an initial 16.”

What emerged was the play Love and War on the Rooftop, staged in the very spaces where much of their conflict had played out.“They told us that everything used to happen on rooftops - from snipers shooting at each other, to friends playing cards, to secret lovers meeting because there were no public spaces,” she explained. The production brought together young men who had once concealed knives, razor blades and even guns in rehearsals, until they began to realise through acting that they were“much more alike than they thought.”

Baroudi said this inspired her to open a dedicated cultural space on the former dividing line between the two communities;“it became a safe space for them all.” From there, her team began new initiatives, including reconstruction projects that trained former fighters in brickwork and carpentry to rebuild the very neighbourhoods they had destroyed. Women were later included to fill educational and organisational gaps.

Calls for a“revolutionary” approach

Other panelists used the occasion to reflect on the achievements and shortcomings of the WPS agenda as it marks its 25th anniversary. Samira Rashwan, Senior Gender Expert on WPS from Egypt, said the world is still failing women in conflict zones.“We spend $2.7 trillion to forge the instruments of war, and less than half a percent of that is spent on tools of peace,” she noted, adding that women in the Arab region live in“the least peaceful places”. Rashwan argued that the WPS agenda has too often been treated as optional and urged shifting from advocacy to enforceable rights.“The powerful shift we can make is to stop asking for our rights and actually start enforcing them,” she said, pointing to the CEDAW Convention as a legal tool that could give women stronger leverage.

Heba Zayyan, Regional Advisor on WPS and Humanitarian Action at UN Women, highlighted that Resolution 1325 and its subsequent frameworks gave women recognition as peace actors for the first time.“Before 1325, women were not seen as negotiators or mediators. Now we see women negotiating ceasefires at the local level and shaping community solutions.” But she acknowledged progress remains uneven, with some national action plans funded and implemented, and others left incomplete.“The challenges are not just regional, but global. Yet the solutions must be homegrown, built by women themselves in their own contexts,” Zayyan stressed.

The session, moderated by Dr. Sara Chehab, Senior Research Fellow at AGDA, was part of a working group convened ahead of the upcoming UN Security Council debate on WPS. Chehab said the goal was to ensure that the voices and experiences of women in the Arab world inform the global framework.“We want the United Nations to hear directly from our region about the gaps that the WPS agenda has left, and how to address them,” she said. Her account stood out as a reminder that peacebuilding is not only about resolutions or frameworks, but about transforming lives at the grassroots.“Peace is not just about stopping war - it's about dignity, inclusion and giving people a sense of purpose,” she added.

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