Rally at Palace of Justice and demo on Saturday to counter VAW and against public ignorance

For the sake of Sara and many others, a small crowd of women, mobilized by the Assemblymen Democratique des Femmes Libanaises and a number of women activists and civil society organizations, rallied yesterday at the Palace of Justice to protest the unending suffering of women victims of emotional and physical violence. A statement read by Caroline Sukkar from the RDFL pointed out that the act of domestic killing can largely based be traced to the patriarchal system which is still governing the security, media, justice and public sectors. Sukkar said that fighting violence against women is a joint responsibility of all segments of society, and appealed to the legislative, executive and judiciary powers to protect women and put an end to these cruel acts of murders. For her part, Lawyer Brigitte Chelebian stressed on behalf of the Beirut Bar Association that the bill on the protection of women and family members from domestic violence, which was passed one year ago, has proved to be less than adequate in deterring criminals. She noted that passing a protection ruling by the Judiciary is not enough. Instead, it is high time for the government to develop the necessary mechanisms that will secure an effective and actual protection before and after a protection order is given. In the same vein, Kafa association published last Tuesday an article on its website criticizing the notorious program on MTV hosted by Toni Khalifeh in which he treated the case of Sara Ameen while saying: “as if violence was not enough for women to tolerate, only to be complemented by a TV show (1544) that blamed the victims and their supporters for their fate”. The article argued that throughout his program of last Monday, Khalifeh relentlessly tried to reinforce his assumption that the resort by women to court or relevant associations to seek protection instigated the act of murder. Kafa noted that the program actually exposes the high levels of superstition, ignorance and lack of awareness with which critical social subjects such as VAW are being tackled. The organization called for a wide participation in the upcoming demonstration which it plans to organize on Saturday at 2pm. The demo will start at the National Museum and will head towards the Palace of Justice under the slogan “Patience has limits… step up action to prosecute assassins of women”. (As Safir, Al Akhbar, Kafa.org.lb, 26-28 May 2015)