Abstract
On 1 April 2014, the Lebanese Parliament passed law number 293/2014 concerning domestic violence against women after a debate lasting nearly four years and which led to many changes from the original draft and then redrafting. This chapter reviews the complex inter-faith debates and politics in trying to get Muslims and Christians to agree on new marriage laws to put all Lebanese citizens on an equal footing and how Muslims saw such an attempt as trying to impose Western standards into their religious sphere. As such it displays how a monotheistic religion takes precedence over considerations of national unity and identity in a religiously divided society.
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Notes
- 1.
English translation was provided by KAFA.
- 2.
English translation was provided by KAFA.
- 3.
KAFA wrote this law with the aim of protecting women specifically because Lebanese society experiences high rates of domestic and family violence against women by husbands and male relatives. Some religious laws allow husbands to exercise some forms of violence against wives, according to some readings of Islamic legal schools about the rights on the body of the wives that husbands acquire in the time of the marriage contract’s signature, with the payment of so-called mahr (dower). This allows us to understand why domestic violence, including marital rape, is intended as violence against women only.
- 4.
Saad Hariri was on charge as Prime Minister from 2010 to 2013, and now again the new President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, elected on 31 October 2016, appointed him on that charge.
- 5.
Article 9 proclaims: The state shall respect all religions and creeds and guarantees, under its protection, the free exercise of all religious rites provided that public order is not disturbed. It also guarantees that the personal status and religious interests of the population, to whatever religious sect they belong, is respected.
- 6.
Article 14, arrêté 60/13, March 1936.
Les communautés de droit commun organisent et administrent leurs affaires dans les limites de la législation civile ».
Art.10. 2, arrêté 60/13, March 1936.
Les membres d’une communauté de droit commun ainsi que ceux qui n’appartiennent à aucune communauté, sont régis en matière de statut personnel par la loi civile.
- 7.
A legal example is the criminal law governing the offence of bigamy, which only Lebanese Christian citizens are subject to, as in Catholic and Orthodox canonical codes marriage is defined as a monogamous relationship, referring directly to Christian teaching. Conversely, the Quran allows Muslim men to have up to four wives and therefore Lebanese Muslims are not subjected to state laws on bigamy.
- 8.
Even if the English text is not available, some international NGOs, as well as KAFA itself, have translated key points.
- 9.
The draft law imposed an imprisonment from six months to two years.
- 10.
The Bar Association, founded in 1919, and Avenir Liban, in collaboration with CEDAW, investigate the legal issues regarding that law and the effective level of protection it could grant to women.
- 11.
Article 25, arrêté 146/18, November 1938.
- 12.
Explicitly asking for the Jihad, as that draft faced a Surat of the Qur’an.
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Panchetti, B. (2018). Women’s Rights Between Civil and Religious Laws: The Lebanese Law on Protection of Women and Family Members from Domestic Violence and the Religious Authorities’ Opposition. In: Dingley, J., Mollica, M. (eds) Understanding Religious Violence. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00284-8_4
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