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The Rassemblement Democratique des Femmes Libanaises (RDFL) organised yesterday a workshop on parliamentary elections from a gender perspective.  This activity falls within the framework of the electoral reform campaign project funded by the European Union and aiming at influencing change in electoral laws and behavior including having gender aware honest and democratic elections. The project aims to achieve that goal through lobbying for a gender aware electoral law as well as raising the political awareness of the electorates on the importance of women’s access to decision making and strengthening the coalition for democratic and political reform in Lebanon.
The workshop coordinator, Caroline Sukkar, noted that there is no comprehensive development without the full participation of women, hence the need to find a strategy which addresses women and men’s interests and experiences and mainstreaming these in policies and programmes as well as monitoring implementation at all level to ensure gender equality.
On the issue of political quota, the coordinator of the women sector in the Al Marada movement, Mirna Zakharia, refuted the belief that men are to be blamed for not including women in parliamentary elections.  She added that there is a need to differentiate between the issue of quota and the laws as women are also to blame because they hesitate in coming forward as candidates whereas men are responsible for rejecting a number of laws related to women such as the law to protect women from violence and to grant women the right to transmit nationality.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar 5 February 2014

During the commemoration of the Arab Woman’s Day on February 1st, the Lebanese First Lady expressed her concern with the realities of Arab women especially that gender equality has yet to be realized in most Arab country at a time when women are still excluded from decision making circles.  
Suleiman noted that the journey towards women’s advancement is long and arduous and does not only concern Arab women but also involves intellectuals, political leaders, opinion leaders, academics and heads of political parties in the Arab world.  She also added that the date of February 1st is an opportunity to look back at achievements and remaining priorities, while highlighting the recent developments in Tunisia with the endorsement of gender equality in the Constitution.  However, Suleiman lamented that family laws in the Arab world are still discriminatory and we have yet to struggle for laws that protect women from family violence as well as for a needed reform of the penal code.  She also added that most Arab government have yet to ratify the international convention on trafficking in humans and is still far from institutionalizing gender equality as well as women’s political participation. Suleiman concluded that everybody should be committed to celebrate this date next year with concrete achievements whilst hoping for a better future for Arab women and communities.
Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Diyar 3 February 2014

The release of Roula Yacoob’s husband following the ruling of the Judge, Alaa Al-Khatib is still stirring waves within civil society as the husband in question has been accused by Rola's family as having allegedly killed their daughter as a result of physical abuse. As such, Kafa and Yacoob’s family are holding a joint press conference today Friday at the Kafa headquarters to announce future steps aiming at unveiling the truth around this affair.

To be noted that the Yacoob family had mistrusted the whole process of the investigation and expressed doubts about the credibility of the forensic reports which, as revealed by the media, included a lot of contradictions.  Indeed, the first Forensic report had said that there are no wounds in the head or around the neck whereas another report said that it was not able to establish the cause of death.  The judge nevertheless decided to consider that death was natural and resulted from a particular form of internal haemorrhage which is not due to beating.

Lawyer Nizar Saghieh from the “Legal Agenda” organisation lambasted the judge and accused him of having been responsive to the defense rather than to the evidence of the forensic reports.  Saghieh also condemned the fact that the Public Prosecution acted in an irregular manner and was subjected to pressure.

Source: Al-Safir 31 January 2013

A law proposal for an "optional” civil marriage developed by the Minister of Justice Shakeeb Kortbawi was published yesterday on the Ministry's website.  According to this new law proposal, Lebanese citizens may contract a civil marriage in Lebanon without necessarily having to delete their confessional identification from the civil registry.  The law proposal introduces some revisions in a number of legal clauses notably the clause 25 from the decree 60 L.R, issued on 13/3/1936, which stipulates that if a civil marriage is contracted in Lebanon or outside, it will be regulated by the civil law chosen by the spouses on condition that it does not violate public order.  In addition, clause 2 of the personal status law issued on 7/12/1951 is regulated and whereby the civil registry officer is provided with the mandate to regulate a civil marriage contract within his jurisdiction.  The law proposal also abolishes the clauses 79 of the civil procedures (Legislative Decree no. 90 issued on 16/9/1983) as a result of which civil courts become mandated to rule over such civil marriages contracted in Lebanon and not only those contracted outside Lebanon.  The new law also imposes a flat fee of LBP 500,000 to be paid to the religious court to which the husband is affiliated.
In reacting to this new proposal, the Legal Agenda considered that this new law proposal has broken a previous taboo by abolishing decree 53 and whereby Muslim confessions and laws become subject to being endorsed by the state.  This, according to the legal group, will undoubtedly be met with serious resistance from within the Muslim confessions.  From another side, the Legal Agenda considers that this new law has not addressed the legal loophole which came up as a result of the civil marriages contracted and recognised in Lebanon in 2013 through the new clause 25 which refers to public order thus leaving the judge wit the discretion to define what public order is.  The Legal Agenda also criticized the prohibitive fee of LBP 500,000 which makes such marriages only accessible to members of certain classes and also creates a precedent whereby the state raises funds for religious courts.  The Legal Agenda concludes that this law proposal reflects an intention to defuse the growing fear among religious institutions of loosing income as a result of increased civil marriages.  In addition, in prioritizing the confession of the husband the law clearly reflects patriarchal and discriminatory mindsets.
Source: Al-Safir 30 January 2014

Fe-Male launched last week its electronic awareness raising campaign under the slogan “Not by Commodification Your Product Sells” and which seeks to highlight various forms of discrimination against women in advertising and in order to stop the practice of objectifying women for the purpose of increasing sales.  The electronic campaign will go on for a one month period during which it will disseminate videos, cartoons and support messages.  It will later be followed by field actions which seek to pressure advertising companies and TV channels to stop exploiting women for enhancing consumerism.  The campaign will call for the portrayal of a balanced and non stereotypical image of women in the media.
Source: Al-Nahar 29 January 2014

Roula Yacoob’s husband was released with no prosecution following the legal instructions of Judge Alaa Al-Khatib requesting halting the prosecution and confirming in a 13-page report that the deceased did not succumb from the beating as this was not proven in the post mortem exam and there were no marks of abuse on her body and she was not beaten on that particular day.  According to judge, thorough investigations were carried out and involved the appointment of 4 medical committees of 16 physicians.  The first two committees included two forensic doctors each, the third committee included five physicians selected by the Order of Physicians in Beirut whilst the fourth included seven doctors chosen by the Orders of Physician of Beirut and of Tripoli.   The physicians included radiologists, brain surgeons, neurosurgeons, orthopedics and forensic doctors,
The head of the medical committee who was entrusted with the task of preparing the report on the cause of death of Roula Yacoob, Dr. Claude Semaan, noted that the committee could neither establish nor refute whether the beating was the cause of death and could not also ascertain whether there is not a congenital malformation which has caused death because the post mortem examination was undertaken quite late after the time of death.
For her part the president of Kafa, Zoya Rouhana, was quite surprised by the decision and confirmed that Kafa will pursue this matter with the family of the victim.  The news and the release of the victim’s husband also came as a shock for the family and friends of Roula in Halba and Akkar.  They confirmed that their daughter did not die of natural causes but suffered injustice along with her family.  The family lawyer, Raymond Yacoob, noted that he was studying all necessary legal channels to appeal this judgment and so that justice can be done.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Akhbar 25 January 2014
 

An Nahar newspaper published a report on the demands of the women’s movement notably in terms of political participation and involvement in decision making processes.  The article concludes that the pervasive patriarchal mentality is a main obstacle towards women’s political participation according to tow of the pioneers of the movement, namely long-time activist Linda Matar and university profession and president of the association of Lebanese University Women Ilham al Kallab Bsat.
Matar shared her fear regarding the future of Lebanon as it struggles with a serious crisis and noted that women’s participation in the upcoming cabinet is not more important than the situation of the country.  She clarified that the situation of Lebanon now does not mean that women’s participation is not important.  However, she wondered about which women are we actually talking about and which Ministry can women take on? Matar questioned the legitimacy of the next Cabinet and noted that she did not accompany the Delegation of the Lebanese Women Council who visited the president of the Republic to demand the appointment of women in the next Cabinet.  She explained that this is because the President himself is not against women’s participation in the cabinet, but, “what can he do? Can he translate this into action?” She finally noted that the women’s movement in Lebanon is similar to the political circles which have not been able to accomplish anything.
Ilham Kallab Bsat noted for her part that those who are lobbying for women’s political participation are facing a brick wall which is the political greed and the co-option of political work by men.  She spoke further about the ways in which men in Lebanon hold on to political power with which they are obsessed in addition to being fearful of competing with women who have proven themselves in public life.  Bsat added that patriarchy in Lebanon is intimately linked to confessionalism and noted that politics is envisaged as access to power rather than the desire to contribute to public service.  She also spoke about how political, family and confessional structures concur to choose men to represent them whilst patriarchal mentalities prevail as men are appointed to take power over all political alliances.  Bsat concluded by saying that women are often blamed and accused of not wanting power and that women do not recognize other women as being more competent for a political office.  However, she adds, these divisions require a different way of working so as to pressure men to adopt a quota for women.
Source: Al-Nahar 24 January 2014

Following the memorandum which was issued a few days ago by the Acting State Prosecutor at Court of Cassation Judge Samir Hammoud and whereby women who leave their home are now considered “missing” rather than “fugitives”, Kafa’s lawyer Leila Awada noted that this revision was one of the outcomes of the round tables organized by Kafa with the participation of jurists, lawyers and members of the security forces.  Awada highlighted some of the positive aspects of this new memorandum.  Indeed, when women were considered to be “fugitives”, they were subjected to detention and humiliation.  Now, men cannot accuse their wives of being “fugitives” and a report of a missing person will be issued instead.  She noted that the present law does not criminalize the act of women leaving their households but that this was rather a practice.  As such, this memorandum will formalise and correct this practice.

During its roundtable discussions, Kafa insisted that the search warrant for women reported missing can be maintained so as to ensure that these women are alive and safe but they should not be arrested and taken into custody as common criminals.  Hence, an agreement was made to replace the status of fugitive by that of missing.  With this new measure, Awada maintains that the authorities form now on will issue a search warrant for women but will not divulge their whereabouts to their husbands should they be able to find them.
Source: Al-Safir, Al-Akhbar 24 January 2014

The Acting State Prosecutor Judge Samir Hammoud at Court of Cassation signed yesterday an official memorandum addressed to judges and where women who leave their homes will now be considered as “missing” rather than “fleeing” as used to be recorded earlier in the court cases against women in these situations.

The memorandum specifically indicates that when women were reported as having fled their homes, a search warrant used to be issued against them and they would be subjected to arrest detention and humiliation.  Now, with this new measure, the police will only look for women and ensure that they are OK and safe from harm.

However, and according to lawyer Nizar Saghieh, this new measure is but a ruse to catch women who have left their husband.  It also legitimizes the principle of men issuing a complaint against their wives in case they leave their house without the husband’s consent.  Saghieh insists that this will not change the situation of women who remain unable to leave home without their husband’s consent.

Source: Al-Safir 23 January 2014