PLW meets Sheikh Abdel Amir Kabalan within the framework of the national campaign to raise children’s custody age but to no avail!

Following its sit in organised on November 5 2013, the PWL (Protection of Lebanese Women) met yesterday with the vice president of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Shekh Abdel Amir Kabalan.  The meeting was held within the framework of the national campaign to raise children’s custody age within the Shiite community.
Following the meeting, the group issued a statement noting that Kabalan was not responsive to their demands and was not even ready to discuss the proposals.  The statement adds that Kabalan’s position is similar to that of Judge Abdel Halim Shararah who saw in this campaign a mere “waste of time”.  Kabalan had asked the Campaign to address their request directly to Ayatollah Sistani in Iraq.
In their statement, the PWL specified that they asked Kabalan to refer to some of the Fatwas issued by several Shiite references, such as Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, whose Fatwa raised the child custody age to 7 years of age for boys and 9 years for girls.  However, the statement added that similarly to Sharara, Kabalan refused this suggestion categorically.
The statement concluded by referring to a series of earlier meeting with Shiite clergy who supported the demands of the PWL campaign notable Jaafari Mufti Ahmed Taleb.  The statement also referred to earlier memoranda issued by the office of Sayyed Hussein Fadlallah supporting the Campaign and stressing that it is possible to change the rulings of the Shiite courts.
Source: Al-Safir 8 November 2013