Violence against women in Lebanese society is structural 

In collaboration with UNFPA, the Institute of Social Sciences in the Lebanese University launched yesterday a study entitled, ‘Gender equality in Lebanon: Reality, challenges and prospects, 20002018’. The study seeks to understand Lebanese society through reports, research and articles on gender and equality between the years 2000 and 2018, in order to detect the extent of national conformism with the international development vision according to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2000 to reach the 2030 agenda. The above study was based on six sectors: Discrimination against women; violence against women; early marriage, forced marriage and female genital mutilation; unpaid housework; women’s participation in public political life, and reproductive life and sexual health. The report concluded by noting that harmful and violent behaviors against women are still firmly rooted in Lebanese society and, therefore, can be classified under gender inequality. The study also determined that violence against women is not only the result of individual or spontaneous behavior, but also the outcome of an act that is deeply entrenched in the structure of relationships that are founded on societal inequality between men and women. This inequality is supported and corroborated by a ‘legislative violence’ protected by the patriarchal system and the supremacy of spiritual courts in the absence of a united personal status law. More on the study in the following link: https://goo.gl/jn82Qz. (Al Akhbar, June 22, 2018)