Walid Jumblatt

Walid Jumblatt (وليد جنبلاط) (born 7 August 1949) is a Lebanese politician and the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP). He is the most prominent leader of Lebanon's Druze community.

Early life and education
The origin of the Jumblatt family is the Kurdish Janpoulad family coming from Shamel Janpoulad and dating back to Janboulad Ibn Kassem al Kirdi al Kaisari, known as Ibn Arabou (1530–1580), and governor of Aleppo. Walid Jumblatt was born in August 1949. He is the son of Kamal Jumblatt, the founder of the PSP, the party which Walid Jumblatt currently leads. He is the maternal grandson of Prince Shakib Arslan. Walid Jumblatt graduated from the American University of Beirut with a bachelor's degree in political science and public administration in 1982.

Career
Upon graduation, Jumblatt worked as a reporter for An Nahar in Beirut. The BBC describes Jumblatt as "the smartest leader of Lebanon's most powerful Druze clan and heir to a leftist political dynasty based around the Progressive Socialist Party". Assem Qanso of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of Lebanon accused Jumblatt of abandoning his father's beliefs. In July 1983, after Amine Gemayel became president, Suleiman Frangieh, Rashid Karami and Walid Jumblatt formed a Syrian-backed National Salvation Front to challenge Gemayel's rule and the pact between Lebanon and Israel that was financially supported by the US. Jumblatt served as minister of public works, of transport and of tourism in the National Unity cabinet led by then prime minister Rashid Karami, which was formed in May 1984.

He was a supporter of Syria, but since the death of Syrian President Hafez Assad in 2000, he has campaigned for Damascus to relinquish control. Jumblatt's close links with the Syrian old guard alienated after the presidency of Bashar Assad. This pitted him against then president Émile Lahoud and the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah of which he said: "Their fighters have done a good job defying and defeating the Israeli army, OK, but the question we ask is where their allegiance goes: to a Lebanese strong central authority or somewhere else?" In the 2009 general elections, Jumblatt won a seat from Shouf as part of the 14 March alliance list.

Although, on 21 January 2011, Jumblatt said he supported Hizbollah and Syria stance, with the onset of the Syrian civil war, Jumblatt and the PSP moved towards an anti-Assad stance.

Personal life
Jumblatt was twenty when he married his first wife, who was an Iranian actress and older than him. His father did not endorse the marriage. His second spouse was Gervette "Gigi," a Jordanian woman of Circassian origin, who is the mother of his child Taymour (born 1982). His current wife is the Syrian Nora Sharabati, the daughter of the former Syrian defense minister Ahmed Al-Sharabati.

In popular culture and arts
As many political leaders, Walid Jumblatt originated important imagery since the late 1970s. The photographer Ziad Antar made a portrait of him using a film expired since 1976, provoking ghosty effect. The image supposedly evokes the danger the Lebanese Druze leader faces after having criticized Hezbollah and the Syrian regime.