Pluralistic march to request the endorsement of the law to protect women from domestic violence || Newspapers (Arabic)

A march entitled “Today, today before tomorrow, let the doors of the Parliament open” was organized yesterday from the Ministry of Interior to the seat of the parliament urging the latter to endorse the law to protect women from domestic violence.  The march included representatives of the 60 organizations which are part of the Coalition for the law to protect women from domestic violence in addition to trade unions, human rights organizations and other active campaigns namely “My Nationality is a Right for me and My Family”, “Raising Children’s Custody Age”, “The Committee to Support Women’s Quota”, the “Civil Campaign for Electoral Reform”, the “Upraising of women in the Arab World”, and the “Laique Pride”.  A number of political parties also took part in the march namely Democratic Left parties; the Progressive Socialist Party, the Greens Party, the National Liberal Party, the Communist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist, FPM, Marada Party, the Future Movement, the People's Movement, the Federation of Democratic Youth and the Phalangist Party, in addition to university students.

The march is part of the Campaign entitled “their lives are more important than your seats” which seeks to put pressure on the Parliament to include the domestic violence bill on the agenda of the Parliamentary Commission.  The director of Kafa, Zoya Rouhana, noted that electoral laws are not more important than protecting women from domestic violence and asked that social issues be included in political priorities.  She noted that political authorities are responsible for the persisting violence, murders and torture perpetrated against women and which patriarchy had kept hidden as family taboos and under the guise of privacy.  The responsible of the women branch in the Future Movement, Afifeh el Sayyed asked the Speaker of the House to play his role in protecting women from family violence especially since the previous Cabinet had endorsed the law in 2010.  The President of the Women’s Section of the Phalangist Party, Rita Boulos, spoke on behalf of MP Sami Gemayel and confirmed the commitment of her party towards endorsing the law.
Source: Al-Anwar, Al-Safir, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar, Al-Safir 25 February 2013