Is the New Lebanese Family Violence Law Enough?

A law to protect women against domestic violence was approved and amended in Lebanon by the Joint Parliamentary Committees to include all family members yesterday [July 23, 2013]. This comes a day after a protest ^[1] was staged in Halba, Akkar, town of Roula Yaacoub, the 31-year old woman who was beaten to death by her husband a couple of weeks ago. The protest was merely one of many that have been occurring since 2008 calling for a complete law protecting women against domestic abuses of all kind.

Lebanese netizens were quick to voice their doubts which were mainly focused around the vagueness surrounding marital rape, lack of gender focus, accompaniment of children and sectarian law overruling this law.

Nadine Moawad ^[2], a well-known Lebanese feminist activist, was one of many who pointed out the flaws in the law:

Law to #protectwomen ^[3] suffered many loopholes in the past years, so we need to know which version passed first before we celebrate. #Lebanon ^[4]

— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013 ^[5]

We are looking for 4 important modifications to #protectwomen ^[3] law: 1) Was marital rape criminalized? MPs had deleted that article.

— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013 ^[6]

2) Does it have a gender focus? MPs had removed "women" from it and made it about the whole family – which defeats purpose. #protectwomen ^[3]

— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013 ^[7]

3) Accompaniment of children? MPs had removed clause that allowed women to take children with them when needing protection. #protectwomen ^[3]

— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013 ^[8]

4) Most important: MPs added article that allows sectarian personal status laws to overrule this law in case of dispute. #protectwomen ^[3]

— Nadine Moawad (@nmoawad) July 22, 2013 ^[9]

But this is still seen as a first step towards a better law that would fully protect women in Lebanon. Ahmad Yassine, blogger at lobnene.com ^[10] adds:

The law is good as a first step to #protectwomen ^[3] in #Lebanon ^[4], but it's NOT ENOUGH YET.

— Ahmad M. Yassine (@Lobnene_Blog) July 22, 2013 ^[11]