NAQOURA, Lebanon: While she follows her religion with devotion, singer and musician Hana Sharaniq Sleiman does not follow what she describes as the “customs and traditions in a patriarchal society that do not favor a woman singing.”

“I don’t believe that singing is wrong for a Muslim woman,” she says, adding that she still respects her family’s advice to give up singing and only play the oud.

Sleiman fell in love with oriental music early on, but was unable to study it as a young girl. Although she married early, her marriage did not mean the end of her aspirations and she received encouragement from her husband, Nasser Sleiman, who enrolled her at the Lebanese National Conservatory of Music so she could refine her artistic talent and learn to play the oud.

She now cites Lebanese musicians such as Marcel Khalife, and the late Zaki Nassif, among her influences.

“There is no clash between my religious devotion and my singing, especially since the songs I perform are classified as Arabic tarab,” Sleiman says. “Our religion of Islam is one that welcomes, and permits [such things].”

The pious musician says she employs her own guidelines in choosing the events where she performs. There are certain lines she will not cross, such as singing at mixed weddings, public concerts, pubs or nightclubs, because she feels that they go against her religious convictions.

“I sing at cultural clubs and hotels with good reputations and I also participate in family weddings as well as nonmixed weddings,” she explains. She also sings free of charge at charity fundraisers for orphans.

Sleiman says she aspires to develop her music toward “singing songs that praise the prophets and entertaining at religious ceremonies.”

Sleiman currently works as a music and art teacher at one of Imam Musa Sadr’s institutions and her husband works as a translator for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. Both are originally from the Bekaa Valley.

She says the musical arts she teaches to her students “refine the self, and increase children’s self-confidence.”

She often performs at events for UNIFIL, including an event held Wednesday in the southern town Naqoura to celebrate the International Day of Peace.

In addition to Sleiman’s performance, numerous women’s organizations also participated in the event, which included a festival with traditional Lebanese homemade food and handicrafts organized in cooperation with UNIFIL and United Nations Development Program.

Peacekeepers were thrilled with Sleiman’s singing and chanted along with her, including to Fairuz’s famous song, “Your Oud is Resonant.”