Patriarchal personnel status laws at the basis of discriminatory laws and violence against women

As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence Campaign, entitled ‘An archaic law is not a serious law’, and which Kafa launched last week (please refer to….) Kafa pressed on with a new sub-campaign for changing the archaic patriarchal legislations and personal status laws and their replacement by civil laws based on gender equality. The slogan of this new campaign: ‘the personal status system is dissonant” clearly highlights the major original flaws in the texts of present family laws that were developed by patriarchal mindset, while emphasizing the need to reform the majority of these texts that are incompatible with women’s and children’s rights, and that are grossly discriminatory against both. In the same vein, Kafa referred to one of its most recent publication entitled: ‘Zalfa’s questions and answers about the personal status law’, which offers simple information concerning personal status laws and related key legal facts. Kafa also strongly criticized the recent decision by the Grand Jury to release suspect Mohamad Munzer who murdered his wife Ruqaya on the eve of Mothers’ Day in 2014 after subjecting her to years of domestic violence, and this despite an earlier criminal accusation. )As Safir, December 1, 2015(