“KAFA” Enough Violence and Exploitation: A well attended march in Beirut condemns violence against women

The issue of violence against women gathered some 4000 persons in an unprecedented march last Saturday March 8th.  The event was called for by Kafa Violence and Exploitation and included a forum theater which was presented in front of the National Museum in Beirut and illustrated the issue of gender based violence.  After the show, participants marched towards the Ministry of Justice and were led by the mothers of Rula Yaakoub and Manal Assi, two women victims who succumbed to domestic violence.  The director of Kafa, Zoya Rouhana criticized the way in which the judiciary is dealing with the issue of domestic violence and called for accountability so that women are not killed twice.  She noted that the struggle will continue until the law to protect women from domestic violence is endorsed by parliament in its integrity and as requested by civil society.  This particular event was characterized by the participation of a large number of children and men in addition to youth and students group.  In addition, activists from other pressure groups took part in this event such as Samira Hamido, an activist in the Nationality Campaign whose personal narrative combines gender based violence and legal violence because of the discriminatory nature of the nationality law and given the fact that she was married to an Iranian.  To be noted also that some 270 activists from the Nationality Campaign participated in this event along with their children and spouses who came from different parts of Lebanon to demand protection from violence and from marital rape.

Source: Al-Mustaqbal, Al-Akhbar, Al-Nahar, Al-Safir, Al-Diyar