Despite all the horrors this woman has lived through, Dad just couldn't let her live out the rest of her life in peace, could he? And look, he has "supporters." So typical of the usual response to male violence.
Dad is identified as HAYDAR HAYDAR.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/motheroffour-salwa-haydar-stabbed-to-death-husband-refused-bail-20150331-1mbj5p.html
Mother-of-four Salwa Haydar stabbed to death, husband refused bail
Date March 31, 2015 - 1:20PM
Emma Partridge
A man has been charged with stabbing his wife to death and injuring his teenage daughter during a violent domestic incident at a southern Sydney home on Monday night.
Haydar Haydar, 58, faced court on Tuesday morning after the mother of his four children, Salwa Haydar, 45, died from a number of stab wounds in their Bexley home.
The couple's 18-year-old daughter, Ola, is believed to have called triple-0 about 6.45pm to say that her mother had been stabbed and was unconscious.
The teenager was later taken to St George Hospital suffering serious injuries to her hand, police said.
Mr Haydar did not apply for bail in Kogarah Local Court on Tuesday and it was formally refused. He briefly looked to a group of supporters in court, who left in tears after police led him away.
Devastated relatives from Mrs Haydar's village in Lebanon congregated at the end of Valda Street on Monday night, watching on as police and forensic officers taped off the red brick villa where the couple lived.
"She was from our village and she was a cousin to me," one man told Fairfax Media.
"She was a nice woman, a hard worker," he said.
Mr Haydar handed himself in to Kogarah police station on Monday night where he was later charged with murder and intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Relatives say the couple had only recently moved into the quiet cul-de-sac which backs onto Bardwell Valley Parklands.
In 2007 Mrs Haydar spoke to Fairfax Media about the day her mother Layla was killed by a missile attack as she tried to escape her village in Lebanon.
At the time she said her husband, Mr Haydar, was watching the news and learned that a convoy, of which her family was part, had been attacked.
"It was as if it was just yesterday," she said. "It is still very hard on everyone. The people there are still suffering."
In July 2006, several vehicles left the village of Aitaroun, one of the most bombed areas in south-east Lebanon, near the Israeli border.
She said at the time her brother saw the first two cars ahead of them get attacked and realised their lives were in danger.
"They ran for safety in a small field," she said. "A missile fell and killed my mum and injured my sister-in-law and niece."
The family returned to the car and rushed the injured to Najm hospital, on the southern edge of Tyre.
A year later, Mrs Haydar said her family was still struggling to come to terms with the devastation.
Salwa's sister-in-law underwent a number of operations for an injured arm while her niece will need plastic surgery.
Magistrate Christine Haskett adjourned Mr Haydar's case until April 9 at Central Local Court.
Showing posts with label Lebanon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lebanon. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Moms protest family law system, discrimination against mothers (Lebanon)
Want to know first hand how progressive father's rights is? Then move to Lebanon, a theocracy where government and society are ruled along religious lines.
http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/women/2338-lebanon-protesters-take-aim-at-family-law-system
Lebanon Protesters Take Aim at Family Law System Monday, 28 March 2011 15:04 Iman Azzi
Source: Women's eNews
The demonstrations held here on March 20 marked the third time in four weeks that protesters gathered to demand an end to the "confessional" or sectarian system that divides Lebanon's government and society along religious lines.
But this time the focus of protesters' anger broadened to include the country's system of family laws that are governed by religious authorities and often discriminate against women.
Signs echoing ongoing protests across the Middle East, including "Game Over," mixed in the streets with new ones such as "Civil Marriage Not Civil War."
"We have a saying in Arabic that if you do something three times, the third time confirms it," Sara Abughazal, editor of the Beirut-based Sawt al-Niswa (Voice of Women) online newsletter, told Women's eNews.
"Sunday was really good," said Abughazal, who is also a member of Lebanon's Nasawiya, a feminist collective that supported the rally and has also planned a discussion on women in the anti-sectarian campaign for tomorrow. "We are able to say that there is a popular interest in secularism. It's not just the intellectuals. We're getting the attention of random people from everywhere."
At this most recent demonstration, Lebanese citizens once again joined in the thousands to demand the overthrow of "the sectarian regime," a slogan modified from Egyptian protesters' demands for the overall overthrow of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
All three protests have focused on bringing an end to sectarianism--a system that has been with this small Mediterranean republic since its independence in 1943--which critics say enflames the tensions among Lebanon's religious communities by pitting them against one another in the division of power.
The demonstrations follow a large anti-sectarian protest held in the capital last year and are occurring ahead of a major April 2 follow-up march that is expected to benefit from the region's current revolutionary energy.
Power Divided Among 18 Religions
Unlike many Arab states, which have been ruled by the same man--or dynastic father-son combination--for decades, Lebanon is not under the control of an authoritarian ruler. Instead it has a sectarian dictatorship that divides power among 18 official religions and limits individual access to the state.
The president must be a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the house a Shiite Muslim and all other cabinet and parliamentary posts are filled according to religious quotas.
Under the confessional system, a citizen must choose a sect before attaining citizenship rights.
All family laws--marriage, birth, death, inheritance--are controlled by religious authorities.
Since current family laws are under the jurisdiction of religious courts, civil marriage, for instance, does not exist in Lebanon.
Most religious laws grant fathers child custody and children are automatically registered in their father's village. Shiite courts allow parents to leave property to daughters alone, while Sunni courts demand that at least some of assets go to the nearest male relative. In some sects, men who harm female relatives can still receive a lesser penalty if they did so citing protection of "family honor," while rape within marriage is also not recognized as a crime.
The march ended in front of the Interior Ministry, with several nongovernmental groups joining. One group there was the Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action, which leads the campaign to overturn the Lebanese government's law restricting Lebanese women from passing citizenship to their foreign husbands and children.
"The strong current confessional political polarization impedes all attempts to pursue rational, cool-headed and objective discussions over the would-be rights of citizens," said Omar Traboulsi, field manager for the group.
"The Nationality Campaign called for the support of the march against sectarianism because our demands for equality between men and women in terms of the right to nationality are being frustrated by confessional considerations constantly being flagged by most of the leading political circles in Lebanon," he added.
Up to 20,000 Protesters
The group estimated that nearly 20,000 Lebanese came out to protest the status quo, a number supported by Twitter users and bloggers. The news agency Agence France-Presse reported between 6,000 and 7,000.
One of the protest's early supporters is Ali Dirany, who helped coordinate some of the rally's logistics.
"You can call me romantic but I want to marry this woman in a healthy environment where she is treated as equally as I am," Dirany said, turning towards his girlfriend, as the two sat outside a coffee shop off of one of Beirut's main streets. "Every sort of law in the civil sector is unjust towards women."
In the two decades following its 15-year civil war, Lebanon has engaged in several economic growth projects and has one of the fastest growing economies in the region. With a population of just over 4 million, it does not suffer the same scale of poverty as its larger Arab neighbors.
The current political structure pits two major camps--one supported by the West and the other backed by Syria and Iran--against each other. Current party heads agree that now is not the time to challenge the system itself.
But with presidents ousted in Tunisia and Egypt, a U.N. "no-fly zone" and military intervention in Libya, a fired cabinet in Yemen and ongoing street-protest-related violence claiming the lives of thousands across the region, every society is feeling the ground shifting.
Beirut has been called the "Paris of the Middle East" since the 1960s for many reasons, including its Mediterranean beaches and culinary pleasures, but never for its revolutionary tendencies.
With help from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, regional neighbors in upheaval and people on the street eager to claim rights as individuals, that may all change.
Many Lebanese now seem eager to make the most of the revolutionary window that has opened.
"It's Lebanon's turn," said Dirany.
Iman Azzi is a freelance journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon.
http://www.towardfreedom.com/home/women/2338-lebanon-protesters-take-aim-at-family-law-system
Lebanon Protesters Take Aim at Family Law System Monday, 28 March 2011 15:04 Iman Azzi
Source: Women's eNews
The demonstrations held here on March 20 marked the third time in four weeks that protesters gathered to demand an end to the "confessional" or sectarian system that divides Lebanon's government and society along religious lines.
But this time the focus of protesters' anger broadened to include the country's system of family laws that are governed by religious authorities and often discriminate against women.
Signs echoing ongoing protests across the Middle East, including "Game Over," mixed in the streets with new ones such as "Civil Marriage Not Civil War."
"We have a saying in Arabic that if you do something three times, the third time confirms it," Sara Abughazal, editor of the Beirut-based Sawt al-Niswa (Voice of Women) online newsletter, told Women's eNews.
"Sunday was really good," said Abughazal, who is also a member of Lebanon's Nasawiya, a feminist collective that supported the rally and has also planned a discussion on women in the anti-sectarian campaign for tomorrow. "We are able to say that there is a popular interest in secularism. It's not just the intellectuals. We're getting the attention of random people from everywhere."
At this most recent demonstration, Lebanese citizens once again joined in the thousands to demand the overthrow of "the sectarian regime," a slogan modified from Egyptian protesters' demands for the overall overthrow of the regime of President Hosni Mubarak.
All three protests have focused on bringing an end to sectarianism--a system that has been with this small Mediterranean republic since its independence in 1943--which critics say enflames the tensions among Lebanon's religious communities by pitting them against one another in the division of power.
The demonstrations follow a large anti-sectarian protest held in the capital last year and are occurring ahead of a major April 2 follow-up march that is expected to benefit from the region's current revolutionary energy.
Power Divided Among 18 Religions
Unlike many Arab states, which have been ruled by the same man--or dynastic father-son combination--for decades, Lebanon is not under the control of an authoritarian ruler. Instead it has a sectarian dictatorship that divides power among 18 official religions and limits individual access to the state.
The president must be a Maronite Catholic, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, the speaker of the house a Shiite Muslim and all other cabinet and parliamentary posts are filled according to religious quotas.
Under the confessional system, a citizen must choose a sect before attaining citizenship rights.
All family laws--marriage, birth, death, inheritance--are controlled by religious authorities.
Since current family laws are under the jurisdiction of religious courts, civil marriage, for instance, does not exist in Lebanon.
Most religious laws grant fathers child custody and children are automatically registered in their father's village. Shiite courts allow parents to leave property to daughters alone, while Sunni courts demand that at least some of assets go to the nearest male relative. In some sects, men who harm female relatives can still receive a lesser penalty if they did so citing protection of "family honor," while rape within marriage is also not recognized as a crime.
The march ended in front of the Interior Ministry, with several nongovernmental groups joining. One group there was the Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action, which leads the campaign to overturn the Lebanese government's law restricting Lebanese women from passing citizenship to their foreign husbands and children.
"The strong current confessional political polarization impedes all attempts to pursue rational, cool-headed and objective discussions over the would-be rights of citizens," said Omar Traboulsi, field manager for the group.
"The Nationality Campaign called for the support of the march against sectarianism because our demands for equality between men and women in terms of the right to nationality are being frustrated by confessional considerations constantly being flagged by most of the leading political circles in Lebanon," he added.
Up to 20,000 Protesters
The group estimated that nearly 20,000 Lebanese came out to protest the status quo, a number supported by Twitter users and bloggers. The news agency Agence France-Presse reported between 6,000 and 7,000.
One of the protest's early supporters is Ali Dirany, who helped coordinate some of the rally's logistics.
"You can call me romantic but I want to marry this woman in a healthy environment where she is treated as equally as I am," Dirany said, turning towards his girlfriend, as the two sat outside a coffee shop off of one of Beirut's main streets. "Every sort of law in the civil sector is unjust towards women."
In the two decades following its 15-year civil war, Lebanon has engaged in several economic growth projects and has one of the fastest growing economies in the region. With a population of just over 4 million, it does not suffer the same scale of poverty as its larger Arab neighbors.
The current political structure pits two major camps--one supported by the West and the other backed by Syria and Iran--against each other. Current party heads agree that now is not the time to challenge the system itself.
But with presidents ousted in Tunisia and Egypt, a U.N. "no-fly zone" and military intervention in Libya, a fired cabinet in Yemen and ongoing street-protest-related violence claiming the lives of thousands across the region, every society is feeling the ground shifting.
Beirut has been called the "Paris of the Middle East" since the 1960s for many reasons, including its Mediterranean beaches and culinary pleasures, but never for its revolutionary tendencies.
With help from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, regional neighbors in upheaval and people on the street eager to claim rights as individuals, that may all change.
Many Lebanese now seem eager to make the most of the revolutionary window that has opened.
"It's Lebanon's turn," said Dirany.
Iman Azzi is a freelance journalist based in Beirut, Lebanon.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Mom fights for custody of 4-year-old son severely abused by custodial father (Sidon, Lebanon)
It is not entirely clear to my how UNNAMED DAD took custody of his 4-year-old son--only to basically torture him. It sounds like the mother was only allowed by the Lebanese courts to have one year of custody after the divorce before the boy was to be "returned" to his father. Then Daddy apparently got tired of being a daddy after about a month, and called the mother to take the child--who was literally covered in blood when she saw him. Not surprisingly, the mother reports that this vicious creep abused her during their marriage as well.
Mother fights for custody of 4-year-old boy severely abused by his own father
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Monday, February 22, 2010
SIDON: The cuts and bruises, obvious signs of physical abuse, can be seen all over his face. Although Maher is just 4 years old, he has already suffered severely traumatizing experiences caused by his own father.
“I don’t want my dad. I don’t want to get in the car. I don’t want to go to the toilet,” he cried when his grandfather asked him on Sunday to tell The Daily Star about his experience.
Maher, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was playing in his grandfather’s garden in Sidon and only agreed to tell his story after he was reassured that no one would take him back to his father’s house.
“Dad beat me with a stick and locked me in the toilet with four dogs,” he started.
The child revealed the marks of abuse that cover his body: burns on his stomach, probably caused by cigarettes, and red welts on his back.
“When I tell him to stop hitting me he says I want to hit you more and when I tell him I’m hungry he makes me eat poop,” he said about his father.
Maher was initially put in the custody of his mother Fatima Atef Wehbe after his parents divorced but was returned to his father after a year. The court ruled that he would stay with his mother for a year and that his father would pay child support, a decision the man did not respect.
“I want to regain custody of my son … What his father did was not normal,” said Wehbe, who was preparing to file a lawsuit against her ex-husband.
Wehbe discovered the abuse when she was called by her husband last Sunday to take her child. “I saw him locked in the bathroom, covered with blood. I couldn’t tolerate the sight and I fainted,” she said, adding that she had herself been abused by her husband during their marriage.
Maher was seen by a legal medical examiner on February 15 and the report concluded that he had been repeatedly beaten over two weeks. The physician Afif Khafaja reported bruises on the child’s face, on his thighs and on his back, as well as burn marks on his stomach.
Maher’s grandfather said the child was with his mother for a year after the divorce but that his father took him back. The father soon returned the child to his mother, saying he would wait for him to become a man and decide for himself who to live with.
He then took the child from his mother about a month ago to spend the weekend with him but he didn’t give him back. Instead he sent Wehbe a text message, saying “it’s either you or me.” Last Sunday Wehbe received a phone call from her ex-husband telling her to take the child back.
“We will file a lawsuit against [the father] for beating his child and we have already filed two complaints against him: one asking that he be denied custody, the other demanding that he pay child support,” said Whebe’s lawyer Samih Haydar.
This is basically domestic violence by proxy--an abuser targeting the children in order to injure and cause pain to the absent partner. And yet another case where Daddy didn't want to pay child support either.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=111989Mother fights for custody of 4-year-old boy severely abused by his own father
By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Monday, February 22, 2010
SIDON: The cuts and bruises, obvious signs of physical abuse, can be seen all over his face. Although Maher is just 4 years old, he has already suffered severely traumatizing experiences caused by his own father.
“I don’t want my dad. I don’t want to get in the car. I don’t want to go to the toilet,” he cried when his grandfather asked him on Sunday to tell The Daily Star about his experience.
Maher, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, was playing in his grandfather’s garden in Sidon and only agreed to tell his story after he was reassured that no one would take him back to his father’s house.
“Dad beat me with a stick and locked me in the toilet with four dogs,” he started.
The child revealed the marks of abuse that cover his body: burns on his stomach, probably caused by cigarettes, and red welts on his back.
“When I tell him to stop hitting me he says I want to hit you more and when I tell him I’m hungry he makes me eat poop,” he said about his father.
Maher was initially put in the custody of his mother Fatima Atef Wehbe after his parents divorced but was returned to his father after a year. The court ruled that he would stay with his mother for a year and that his father would pay child support, a decision the man did not respect.
“I want to regain custody of my son … What his father did was not normal,” said Wehbe, who was preparing to file a lawsuit against her ex-husband.
Wehbe discovered the abuse when she was called by her husband last Sunday to take her child. “I saw him locked in the bathroom, covered with blood. I couldn’t tolerate the sight and I fainted,” she said, adding that she had herself been abused by her husband during their marriage.
Maher was seen by a legal medical examiner on February 15 and the report concluded that he had been repeatedly beaten over two weeks. The physician Afif Khafaja reported bruises on the child’s face, on his thighs and on his back, as well as burn marks on his stomach.
Maher’s grandfather said the child was with his mother for a year after the divorce but that his father took him back. The father soon returned the child to his mother, saying he would wait for him to become a man and decide for himself who to live with.
He then took the child from his mother about a month ago to spend the weekend with him but he didn’t give him back. Instead he sent Wehbe a text message, saying “it’s either you or me.” Last Sunday Wehbe received a phone call from her ex-husband telling her to take the child back.
“We will file a lawsuit against [the father] for beating his child and we have already filed two complaints against him: one asking that he be denied custody, the other demanding that he pay child support,” said Whebe’s lawyer Samih Haydar.
Monday, December 7, 2009
KAFA introduces family-violence legislation (Beirut, Lebanon)
Violence against women and children is, unfortunately, truly international. But even in places like Lebanon, where women have very few legal rights, beginning efforts are underway to combat the violence.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=109490
Pleas to end domestic violence fall on deaf ears
NGO underlines urgent need for law designed to prevent family abuse
By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Monday, December 07, 2009
BEIRUT: For years, Umm Radwan’s (not her real name) daily routine never changed. Her husband would start beating her and her children early in the morning, only stopping to rape her, eat, and sleep. If the mother of four pleaded with her husband to stop his aggression, he would take a knife to their throats or shove their heads down the toilet. If they fell unconscious, her husband would rouse them with a cold shower and then continue his beatings.
Although she eventually left her husband, Umm Radwan and her children remain deeply scarred by their experiences. Despite repeated pleas, the police never intervened to help Umm Radwan. When her husband was sent to prison, it was for theft, not family violence. “My son started acting like his father and carrying a knife. He said to me once he remembered being 6 years old, when his dad would hit him, and how I would run to the police to get help and they wouldn’t come.” Umm Radwan’s son now lives on the streets, and she says she is both scared of and for him. “I have been screaming for 20 years and no one has listened to me or helped me,” she said.
It might be too late for Umm Radwan, but women’s rights activists are stepping up action to ensure no women have to endure such suffering in the future.
KAFA, a Lebanese non-governmental organization dedicated to eradicating to eradicating gender-based violence, child abuse and human trafficking, last week defended the need for a family-violence bill. Speaking at the Lebanese Parliament, KAFA representatives said such a law was needed urgently.
No statistics about domestic violence exist in Lebanon, where the issue is heavily stigmatized, but KAFA estimates at least 75 percent of women have experienced some form of physiological or physical violence. Lebanese law also favors men: the penal code has no specific laws relating to domestic violence and does not criminalize marital rape. Currently, Lebanon’s 15 religious courts preside over cases dealing with domestic violence and usually disadvantage women on such issues as custody and divorce.
Because of the social and legal obstacles surrounding domestic violence, many women often choose to stay with violent partners for the sake of their children, campaigners say. “Domestic violence is still considered a private matter and talking about it is still a social taboo,” KAFA’s director Zoya Rouhana told MPs. “This prohibits traditional legal systems from defining domestic violence and from making it public so that it can fall under the authority of the law.”
If introduced, the KAFA family-violence bill would see a special, secular family court established, where cases of domestic violence would by ruled on in the presence of judges, psychotherapists, social workers, and forensic experts. Specialized police units with female officers trained in domestic violence issues, would be opened across Lebanon’s six governorates. A law would also be formulated obliging anyone who witnesses domestic violence to report it.
The Lebanese government should pass the bill “to show a clear refusal of these violent actions and to send a clear message rejecting popular traditions justifying domestic violence,” Rouhana said.
According to KAFA lawyer Layla Awada, the law also gives women the right to ask for restraining orders. “The restraining order also states that a man must provide a safe place of residence for his wife and family, cannot use her personal belongings, pay alimony and undergo a rehabilitation treatment.”
The Woman and Child Parliamentary Committee began coordinating with women rights activists in 2007 and has discussed and presented draft laws on several laws. However, political bickering has held back progress on crucial gender-equality issues like nationality, personal status or a women’s political quota, the committee’s head, MP Gilberte Zouein said. “A huge responsibility falls on the Lebanese government … because it is unable to guarantee gender equality,” she added.
The state of women’s rights in Lebanon stands in stark contrast with the Lebanese Constitution, which guarantees equality between men and women before the law, and Lebanon’s obligations to gender equality in accordance with its adherence to international agreements, Rouhana said. – Additional reporting by Carol Rizk and Omar Katerji
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=109490
Pleas to end domestic violence fall on deaf ears
NGO underlines urgent need for law designed to prevent family abuse
By Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
Monday, December 07, 2009
BEIRUT: For years, Umm Radwan’s (not her real name) daily routine never changed. Her husband would start beating her and her children early in the morning, only stopping to rape her, eat, and sleep. If the mother of four pleaded with her husband to stop his aggression, he would take a knife to their throats or shove their heads down the toilet. If they fell unconscious, her husband would rouse them with a cold shower and then continue his beatings.
Although she eventually left her husband, Umm Radwan and her children remain deeply scarred by their experiences. Despite repeated pleas, the police never intervened to help Umm Radwan. When her husband was sent to prison, it was for theft, not family violence. “My son started acting like his father and carrying a knife. He said to me once he remembered being 6 years old, when his dad would hit him, and how I would run to the police to get help and they wouldn’t come.” Umm Radwan’s son now lives on the streets, and she says she is both scared of and for him. “I have been screaming for 20 years and no one has listened to me or helped me,” she said.
It might be too late for Umm Radwan, but women’s rights activists are stepping up action to ensure no women have to endure such suffering in the future.
KAFA, a Lebanese non-governmental organization dedicated to eradicating to eradicating gender-based violence, child abuse and human trafficking, last week defended the need for a family-violence bill. Speaking at the Lebanese Parliament, KAFA representatives said such a law was needed urgently.
No statistics about domestic violence exist in Lebanon, where the issue is heavily stigmatized, but KAFA estimates at least 75 percent of women have experienced some form of physiological or physical violence. Lebanese law also favors men: the penal code has no specific laws relating to domestic violence and does not criminalize marital rape. Currently, Lebanon’s 15 religious courts preside over cases dealing with domestic violence and usually disadvantage women on such issues as custody and divorce.
Because of the social and legal obstacles surrounding domestic violence, many women often choose to stay with violent partners for the sake of their children, campaigners say. “Domestic violence is still considered a private matter and talking about it is still a social taboo,” KAFA’s director Zoya Rouhana told MPs. “This prohibits traditional legal systems from defining domestic violence and from making it public so that it can fall under the authority of the law.”
If introduced, the KAFA family-violence bill would see a special, secular family court established, where cases of domestic violence would by ruled on in the presence of judges, psychotherapists, social workers, and forensic experts. Specialized police units with female officers trained in domestic violence issues, would be opened across Lebanon’s six governorates. A law would also be formulated obliging anyone who witnesses domestic violence to report it.
The Lebanese government should pass the bill “to show a clear refusal of these violent actions and to send a clear message rejecting popular traditions justifying domestic violence,” Rouhana said.
According to KAFA lawyer Layla Awada, the law also gives women the right to ask for restraining orders. “The restraining order also states that a man must provide a safe place of residence for his wife and family, cannot use her personal belongings, pay alimony and undergo a rehabilitation treatment.”
The Woman and Child Parliamentary Committee began coordinating with women rights activists in 2007 and has discussed and presented draft laws on several laws. However, political bickering has held back progress on crucial gender-equality issues like nationality, personal status or a women’s political quota, the committee’s head, MP Gilberte Zouein said. “A huge responsibility falls on the Lebanese government … because it is unable to guarantee gender equality,” she added.
The state of women’s rights in Lebanon stands in stark contrast with the Lebanese Constitution, which guarantees equality between men and women before the law, and Lebanon’s obligations to gender equality in accordance with its adherence to international agreements, Rouhana said. – Additional reporting by Carol Rizk and Omar Katerji
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