Janet Lee Stevens

Janet Lee Stevens
Born(1950-12-01)December 1, 1950
Saginaw, Michigan, US
DiedApril 18, 1983(1983-04-18) (aged 32)
Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation(s)Journalist, human rights advocate, translator, and scholar

Janet Lee Stevens (December 1, 1950 – April 18, 1983) was an American journalist, human rights advocate, translator, and scholar of popular Arabic theater. She lived in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War and chronicled the experiences of Palestinian refugees before and after the Sabra and Shatila Massacre of September 16–18, 1982.[1][2]

Stevens died in the April 18, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, for which a local Iranian-backed Shia militia claimed responsibility. In 2003, the family of Stevens and other American victims filed a lawsuit against the Iranian government, and in 2005, a U.S. Federal District Court found Iran guilty of orchestrating the embassy bombing and ordered it to pay damages to the plaintiffs, including $13,449,000 to relatives of Janet Lee Stevens. Iran did not respond or pay.[3]  

Today, at the University of Pennsylvania, the Janet Lee Stevens Memorial Fund – whose early recipients in the 1980s included the literary critic Edward Said[4] – continues to give grants to scholars whose work promotes Arab-American understanding.[5]

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