Activists Demand Violence Draft Law Approval on International Women's Day

Protesters took to the streets of Beirut Saturday on International Women's Day to demand better protection for women amid an uproar over husbands murdering their wives.

The march by some 4,000 women, men and children from the National Museum to the Palace of Justice, was led by mothers and other relatives of women they said had been the victims of domestic violence.

The demonstration was organized by the NGO KAFA–Enough Violence and Exploitation and it called for the endorsement of a draft bill that protects women from domestic violence.

The bill would set prison terms of up to 25 years with forced labor for men convicted of murdering a female relative.

The draft, which has languished after being approved by a parliamentary committee last year, would also create a specialized police agency to deal with abuse and permit women to seek civil damages in abuse cases.

As marchers shouted "The people want the bill to be ratified", some carried posters reading "Break the silence", "We say no to abuse, do you?" and "Speak out. Stop domestic violence."

Zoya Rouhana, director of KAFA, said "the fact victims' relatives are starting to talk about these crimes means that the consciousness that one must not be silent is growing".

"The media are also playing an increasingly important role, and as a whole, awareness is growing in Lebanon on issues concerning women's rights and the fight against domestic violence," she told Agence France Presse.

Protesters also chanted slogans criticizing judges and forensic specialists whom they accused of falsifying reports on recent murders.

In July 2013, the joint parliamentary committees approved a law to protect women from family violence, but with some amendments.

KAFA and the "National Coalition for Legislating the Protection of Women from Family Violence" welcomed this step, but expressed their concerns about the amendments made to the law by a special parliamentary sub-committee, asserting their perseverance in lobbying efforts to reach the sought-after results in the general assembly.

According to the version that was approved at the committees, and despite the re-introduction of the crime of marital rape in the latest version of the law, it is still not explicitly criminalized as an assault by itself; rather it is the harm that accompanies it that is penalized.

Moreover, and as indicated by the new version, minors do not profit from the protection order, unless they are still under the age of custody as set by the different religious laws, an article which will make women more reluctant to report abuse because they may not be able to protect their children when they file for a protection order.

Recently, Lebanon has witnessed a number of criminal cases where husbands allegedly beat their wives to death, mainly the recent cases of Manal al-Assi and Roula Yaacoub.

In the absence of a legal guarantee, women and girls are constantly reluctant to report abuses and to claim their right to a decent human life, which in return favors all forms of violence.

And rights activists accuse politicians of complicity with religious leaders, who have publicly opposed the passing of a law criminalizing domestic violence in all forms including marital rape.

In 2011, Lebanon's Grand Mufti described the bill as "heresy", saying it would lead to the demise "of the family as in the West".