Last summer, during the war with Israel, Hezbollah's Al Manar satellite TV channel ran an advertisement featuring Reem Haidar, an attractive Lebanese woman with a special request for Hezbollah leader Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah. "I want his cloak that he sweated in while he was defending me, my children, my sisters, and my land," said Haidar, with a toss of her highlighted hair, as martial music played in the background. "I want it so that I can rub some of its sweat on myself and my children. Maybe they can also distribute pieces of it to the people, so that they can soak up some dignity, honor, and nobility." In her sunglasses, plunging v-neck, and red bandanna, Haidar made quite an impression. Al Manar put the Haidar clip in heavy rotation, and, after the war, she got her wish: Hezbollah presented her with Nasrallah's presumably sweat-soaked clerical robe...

...The Attar (literally, essence) of Resistance comes in jasmine, gardenia, and tea rose (the latter, because it supposedly found favor with Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is rumored to be Nasrallah's personal pick). The slender vials are packaged in little laminated folders with excerpts from Nasrallah's speeches printed inside. On the front, Nasrallah waves a hortatory hand, with Lebanese and Hezbollah flags fluttering behind him, while a missile sinks an Israeli gunboat. On the back, there's a photo collage of lilies and rocket launchers. All this for $1? Who could resist?...

...In Lebanon, the word "resistance" often denotes Hezbollah's rockets, missiles, and machine guns, which the United States and Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government want to take away. But it also has a broader meaning: of popular struggle against Israel, the United States, or Western powers. For Khalil--who is also a poet, prisoners' rights activist, and occasional independent political candidate--the resistance doesn't have to be violent. "I don't believe in weapons or arms," says Khalil, who deplores the September 11 attacks on the United States. "There are many ways of resisting. Resistance can be a word; it can take many forms." Like perfume.

Khalil's inspiration came on September 22, 2006, five weeks after the end of last summer's war, when Hezbollah staged an enormous rally in the bombed-out ruins of the Shia neighborhoods where its offices used to be. As hundreds of thousands packed into the newly cleared square to celebrate the "divine victory," Khalil looked around and saw a sea of trinkets bearing pictures of Nasrallah. "I decided that I wanted people to have something more enduring," says Khalil. "I wanted people to know the essence of the resistance."...