Other news

The Justice Commission at the Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) organized in collaboration with Kafa a seminar in the challenges facing law 293 to protect women from family violence. The event was held at the HQ of PSP in Wata al Musaytbeh, last Friday and was attended by Layla Awada and Faten Abou Shacra from Kafa and the president of the Progressive Women Union, Wafa al Abed, participants from the Progressive Youth Organization and lawyers affiliated to the political party. The Justice Commissioner Nash’at Husnieh highlighted during the seminar the importance of the law and the support it receives from the party and its institutions. Laila Awada outlined the journey of the law and the preparations leading to it as well as the various steps undertaken by Kafa to monitor its implementation. She emphasized the importance of the law, the need to develop it and to address its gap.  She also praised the judicial decisions taken in its aftermath. (Al Mustaqbal, 26 April 2015)

AL Diyar newspaper published an article yesterday by Rana Jouni in which she criticizes women wearing the veil as a fashion and where she refers to veiled women who also wear makeup and fashionable accessories or who replace their traditional abayas with tight jeans. Jouni noted that this new trend of the contemporary Hijab is not in line with the common definition and understanding of the Hijab. The author quotes Islamic researcher Abed el Hadi Munther who noted that this kind of a veil is “a Western creation which aims at undermining and controlling societies”, adding that this was largely facilitated “by the influx of soap operas which have taken over Islamic societies rapidly”. The author of the article did not only criticize harshly women who wear modern versions of the Hijab but also raised questions as to who is responsible for what she calls “a dangerous deviation”. We have chosen to highlight this article for two reasons which are not related to the common debate around the veil. First, we perceive the author’s opinion as an infringement of personal freedoms and liberties.  Secondly, we consider that the continuous focus on women’s clothing and attire is a sexist and patriarchal behavior whereas men’s attires are never put into question. (Al Diyar, 22 April 2015)

‘Chaml’ association organized last Friday at 5:30 pm a sit in at the Martyrs Square with the participation of women who had a civil marriage along with their husbands and children. The purpose was to call for a unified civil family code.  For more coverage of the event, please go to the following link:
http://bit.ly/1G2QRIV

As Safir newspaper published an article about a new environmental project which seeks to transform plastic bags into handbags. The idea was launched by Noor Qays as part of her graduation project.  She opened last Saturday her first exhibition at the “Tawla” restaurant in Mar Mkhael. The project consists of harvesting and cleaning plastic bags, treating them and then sewing them into handbags. The final color of each handbag cannot be predicted as the combination of various plastic bags is likely to produce different colors. The initiative aims to mitigate environmental damages caused by plastic bags on soil, marine and other forms of life as well as raise awareness on the need to limit the use of plastic bags. (As Safir, 21 April 2015)

The Individual Initiative association launched yesterday a new campaign for the creation of a special national identity card for children of Lebanese women married to foreigners. This special ID will assist children in obtaining various medical, social and educational services. The initiative was launched during a press conference organized with the participation of NGO representatives as well as women married to foreigners and lawyers. The legal responsible at the organization, Zeina al Masri noted that the current nationality law dates back to 1920 whereas the Constitution states that international conventions take primacy over local laws. She also added that Lebanese mothers cannot be bound by political and confessional dissentions. The president of the organization, Mustapha Shaar called for adopting this card which would allow children of Lebanese mothers to travel freely from and to Lebanon and work in all sectors. He also noted that the amendment of the nationality law was put forward during the Mikati mandate and was supported by all the parliamentary blocks except the Free Patriotic Movement. He also added that there are some 100000 stateless in Lebanon whose conditions have not been resolved to date. (National News Agency, 20 April 2015)

A report published last Thursday by the Lebanese Center for Human Rights under the title “Women behind bars- arbitrary detention and torture of women in Lebanon” indicated that almost 52% of women detainees in Lebanon in the years 2013 and 2014 were subjected to severe torture by security forces during their interrogation. According to CLDH, the main methods of torture and mistreatment used by male security guards or investigators against women who were interviewed varied between beating, deprivation, humiliation, threats, insults and infringement on privacy. In this respect, the Director General of CLDH, Wadih Al Asmar expressed disappointment in the findings of the report, which revealed that the level of arrested persons in the Lebanese prisons who were tortured did not change (60%) since 2009. Asmar noted that the provisions of Article 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure are not adequate to protect individuals against torture during arrest, stating that women defendants have no right to talk to their lawyers in private and therefore cannot report ill-treatment. “During the period under study, Lebanese judges have continued to rely on confessions of suspects reached under torture and have failed to order further investigations in these cases. As a result, women continue to be victims of illegal detention and torture by security forces in a clear breach of the Lebanese Law and the Lebanon’s international obligations,” Al Asmar concluded. (L’Orient Le Jour, 17 April 2015)

My Nationality is a Right for Me and My Family Campaign announced in a press conference held yesterday at the Bar Association premises in Beirut its rejection of a draft law petition that will grant the nationality to descendants of Lebanese origin. The Campaign noted that this law petition which comes as a result of an agreement between Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea and Tayyar representative Gebran Bassil is both discriminatory and sectarian. Panelists warned that the said law will once again deprive women of their rights to full citizenship. The panelists went on to say that the proposed law is only recognizing male blood lineage and is thus depriving both resident and immigrant women from their rights. In countering the argument based demographic imbalances; the Campaign rejected that argument noting that such an argument applies equally to both women and men marriages. Furthermore, the campaign called for a new social contract that will guarantee equality to all citizens. Finally, it appealed to officials to amend the projected nationality law to ensure gender equality. On the same subject, the Campaign recently produced a report in partnership with the Equality without Reservation Campaign and the Women’s Learning Partnership for Rights, Development and Peace in which it condemned the ministerial committee’s rejection two years ago to amend the nationality law based on unjustified grounds and in clear breach of international conventions and agreements. Furthermore, the report which was submitted to the Universal Periodical Review for Human Rights, noted, that the statistics presented at the time did not truly demonstrate the deepening of demographic confessional imbalances, adding that the demands of women’s associations for right to citizenship and equality was distorted then replaced by demands for social services. To recall, since Lebanon’s submission to the Universal Periodical Review March 2011 at the sixteenth session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva to date, there has been no progress as per achieving equality in the nationality law, at the time the HRC recommendation on this matter was turned down. (An Nahar, As Safir, Al Diyar and Al Akhbar April 17, 2015)

BLC Bank’s Chairman General Manager, Mouris Sehnawi took part alongside UN Director General, Ban Ki Moon, and US Senator, Hilary Clinton, in the Women’s Empowerment Principles Annual Forum which was held at the Economic and Social Chamber at the UN Headquarters in New York. Sehnawi was invited, along some 850 CEOs, in his capacity as the first chief executive from MENA region known for his unwavering commitment for women empowerment. This was supported by the success of BLC ‘We Initiative’ campaign aimed at enhancing small and medium businesses and empowering women. In his intervention during the forum, Sehnawi noted that BLC was committed since 2012 to support women capacities in Lebanon and in the Arab region by creating tangible solutions to their daily challenges. He said that the Bank has taken concrete steps to increase by 69% the loans targeting women entrepreneurs this year, adding that the total revenues of a private business run by a woman winner of the ‘Brilliant Lebanese Awards’ rose from USD 35 thousand to one million only two years after. Recommendations of the WEP forum stressed the importance of the new UN sustainable development goals that will be decided this year and that will guide the development agenda for the next 15 years. (Al Diyar, 16 April 2015)

In a comprehensive campaign to fight illegal practices, Health Minister Wael Abu Faour ordered on November 18, 2014, the closure of some 96 unlicensed beauty clinics. In doing so Abu Faour was reinforcing the legislation Decree No. 9827 of the year 1962 regulating the cosmetics sector as per making mandatory the acquisition of legal permits to practice, open or invest in beauty centers, and was implementing the Official Circular No. 41 issued in 2013. The information currently at the hands maintains that only 34 beauty centers are lawful and 136 professionals possess the permits to practice, according to the head of medical professions at the Ministry, Antoine Romanos. A preliminary survey has already revealed the presence of 92 unlicensed centers with much more to come as a result of another current survey expected to be concluded soon. Romanos did not give a precise figure for the total of illegal centers but estimated them at least at around 500 unlawful beauty clinics. Preliminary date at the Syndicate for Cosmetics Professionals and Owners of Beauty Centers indicates a much wider number of both clinics and practitioners in the field. The syndicate estimates that this field includes some 3500 centers and 15 thousand practitioners, only 19 of the latter with authorization to practice. The study carried out by the Syndicate was based on the records of cosmetics suppliers and exhibitors. Romanos clarifies the difference between medical aesthetic practice and services in beauty shops, explaining that the latter should only be involved in makeup art, skin and nail care, and that practitioners are only required to possess a professional brevet or technical baccalaureate. On the other hand, aesthetic and or plastic surgery and interventions can only be practiced by certified medical doctors like dermatologists or plastic surgeons.  Circular 41 has identified the tasks of practitioners in this branch of medicine, as including cultivation of hair, skin injections with cosmetics, use of laser, skin tightening, chemical peels and fat analysis. Pending the enactment of the new law, Abu Faour said that the regulation of this sector cases will be carried out according to certain provisions. These include a signed contract with a specialized dermatologist or plastic surgeon provided that the specialist is a full time practitioner having no right to open a private clinic.  (Al Akhbar, 7 April 2015)

Global figures suggest that caesarean deliveries are only carried out when it is medically necessary to facilitate a difficult birth. However, in Lebanon they have become normal practices. Surveys conducted in the past ten years have shown a considerable rise in the level of caesarian births, and is now estimated by the Health Ministry, to have reached 44% of total births. This figure is alarming high particularly when compared to 15% which is the acceptable rate set by World Health Organization. According to WHO, a figure higher then the world average indicates a level which surpasses medical needs while a level below 5% signals a deficiently in medical care and constitutes a threat to the mother’s life. Furthermore, international studies have indicated that unnecessary caesarean deliveries have proven to have negative effects on both mother nd child health. (Al Diyar, 8 April 2015)