NCLW clarifies the misunderstanding with regards to marital rape

The Information International Company organized a seminar on early marriage from the points of view of religion and law. The seminar included interventions by members of the clergy as well as Judge John Azzi who insisted on the need to develop the laws in relation to early marriage and set the early marriage age at 18.  He also presented a number of suggestions namely the creation of a Ministry for Family Affairs, a family court as well as a public prosecution specialized for family matters.  Sheikh Youssef Sbeity of the legal office of Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah noted that Islam does not allow the kidnapping of minor girls and then contracting a marriage under the guise that she has reached puberty and has married with her free will without the presence of her guardian.  Father Abdo Raad of the Basilian Salvatorian Church considered that the minimum marriage age in Christian communities is 18.  He asked for stiff penalization of anybody who performs a marriage underage girl no matter what his confession is. Sheikh Mahdi Shalak, the retired judge of the Sunni court, indicated that marriage in Islam is in fact a civil contract and adults and children who are considered to have reached puberty can marry themselves without the guardian’s consent however, he considered that girls under the age of 9 cannot be married and, in any case, girls should not marry before the age of 14.

In a related vein, and following the media coverage of the declaration made by Ms, Randa Berri during the NCLW event to launch the campaign to protect girls from early marriage, and in which she stated her position against the criminalization of marital rape, NCLW issued a clarification statement noting that it supports the full demands of civil society organizations, notably Kafa, in their demand for the criminalization and penalization of marital rape.  NCLW added that Berri’s statement was simply to highlight the complexity of the proof of guilt in this case although she is one of the principal supporters of this law.

On the other hand, Future Movement MP Ziad Kaderi, spoke yesterday on the occasion of International Women’s Day and reiterated the support of his party towards the law to protect women from domestic violence whilst assuring that the Future Movement will vote for this law.  He also called for a consensus around the right of Lebanese women married to non-nationals to transmit their nationality to their children and the need to discuss this matter cool headedly and away from political bickering.
Sources:  Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar, Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Nahar 7 March 2014