Shabtini for lifting injustice on women and for countering fanaticism and backwardness

The Cultural Development Association of Batroon organized yesterday a seminar entitled ‘Women Are Half of Society’ with the participation of the minister of the displaced, Alice Shabtini, former minister Demianos Kattar and a crowd of notable figures. Shabtini underlined the need to change the mentality controlling some systems and the discriminatory legislations against women. She said such laws promote unfair treatment of women as weak, incapable social components when the fact is just the opposite. She maintained that women in such communities are subjected to all forms of violence, humiliation and physical intimidation due to what she described as "fanatic, backward and authoritarian mentalities.” While she warned that it is high time for women to reclaim their full rights, Shabtini underlined their essential role in peace making, stressing the need to lift injustice through developing strict laws against conservative practices. For his part, Kattar considered that “the struggle for the rights of women is a big heading across the globe.” He said Lebanon suffers from chronic weaknesses and stagnation of reforms in the legal and personal law systems, as well as from a deep-rooted family/clan structure which prevents women from participating in decision making.” Kattar concluded by calling for the adoption of the quota representation system as a first step, noting that “it is a right and not a favor.”

Al Mustaqbal, May 17, 2016