Lebanon

Lebanon: 'No Arab Spring without Women'

Under the banner of “No Spring without Women,” a Lebanese feminist organisation has organized a march in Beirut, as part of the 5th New Arab Woman Forum. The slogan of the march is “Sawa Sawa”, which in this context means “Let’s walk together, let’s make it together”, calling for a Spring that includes both men and women. Before getting the invitation to this march, my mind was already preoccupied with the future of Arab women after the revolutions and how women’s status might be impacted in each of the Arab countries. My concern is: can there be Arab union or organisation to sustain Arab women’s status in the post-revolution era?

Liban: 'Au Liban, Les Femmes Se Mobilisent Contre Le Viol et La Violence'

Les visages sont graves au collectif féministe Libanais Nasawiya tandis que les histoires de harcèlements sexuel verbaux et physiques défilent, et que le viol et le meurtre perpétrés sur Myriam Achkar fait la une des journaux.

« L’heure est venue de faire quelque chose, cette situation ne peut plus durer », déclare Farah, activiste des droits de la femme de longue date et membre du collectif.

Liban: 'Citoyenne de seconde zone'

Depuis le 30 novembre 2011, les femmes émiraties peuvent transmettre leur nationalité à leurs enfants issus d’un mariage mixte. Une première dans un pays arabe du Golfe.

Joli cadeau qu’offre par décret présidentiel Khalifa ben Zayed el-Nahyane aux femmes de son pays, à l’occasion du 40e anniversaire de la création des Émirats arabes unis. Bel exemple d’une volonté d’évoluer, dans un monde arabe où la femme n’est toujours pas l’égale de l’homme, mais encore mise sous tutelle, voire infantilisée.

Israel/Lebanon: 'The Making of a Secular Democracy: Law, Marriage, and Empirical Irrelevance in Israel and Lebanon'

On any given weekend, Israeli and Lebanese citizens can be found standing together in an orderly line before a Cypriot magistrate. They shuffle forward, couple by couple, in line to get married. The distance to Cyprus is roughly the same for an Israeli or a Lebanese couple, as is the reason why these couples choose to get married there. And no, it is not due to the beautiful weather, the beaches, or the nightlife in Cyprus, which most Israelis and Lebanese would insist to the reader, with a swish of nationalist bravado, are inferior. These are not marriages between Lebanese and Israelis. Rather, these couples leave their countries and travel by boat or by plane to a country that has what Israel and Lebanon both lack: a civil marriage law. To put it more simply, they do not have a marriage law that is adjudicated by secular, and not religious, authorities. Despite the fact that interfaith marriages cannot take place in either country, in Lebanon the lack of civil marriage is understood to index both the lack of secularism and liberalism and the primordial and patriarchal nature of the Lebanese state, while Israel continues to enjoy the ideological capital that its status as “the only [secular] democracy in the Middle East” ensures and unleashes.

Australia: 'Lebanese-Australian girl goes to court to stop her marriage'

A 16-year-old girl has been placed on an airport watch list in Australia after going to court to prevent her parents sending her to Lebanon for a forced marriage.

The Federal Magistrates' Court ruled that the parents of the teenager, who cannot be named, could not remove or attempt to remove their daughter from the country to marry the young man she has met only once.

Magistrate Joe Harman also ordered that the parents not assault, molest, harass, threaten or otherwise intimidate the girl or take her out of school.

Lebanon: Girls Camp Focuses on Technology for Empowerment

Equipped with writing, filming and editing skills, “Geekettes” are ready to take back the tech and introduce audiences to an entirely new way of looking at the world: through the eyes of Lebanese girls ages 15-19.

During the weeklong Girl Geek Camp in July, girls from across Lebanon arrived in the city of Kfardebian to learn how to create blogs, use social networks, and film videos on cameras and mobile phones. Building on the camp’s success, the second class of Geekettes arrive this month.

Passerelle du Liban pour le développement et la connaissance (arabe)

Meem (arabe, anglais)

Le groupe une communauté de et pour les femmes LBTQ au Liban. LBTQ est définie comme les femmes qui s'identifient comme lesbiennes, bisexuelles, transgenres (y compris les hommes-femmes et femmes-hommes), queer, en plus des femmes s'interrogent sur leur orientation sexuelle. Nous croyons dans la diversité. Meem se donne aussi comme mission la fourniture de services de soutien et d’information pour les lesbiennes partout dans le monde arabe.

لبنان: رفض قانون العنف المنزلي: تجاهل المرأة وإسكاتها

هناك غموض يلف عدد النساء العاملات في لبنان، وأكثر من ذلك عدد النساء المعيلات للأُسَر. الحقيقة أنّه في لبنان، من الصعب أن تستطيع المرأة، أيّاً كان وضعها الديني والاجتماعي، المجاهرة بإعالتها للأسرة، وذلك حفاظاً على التقاليد والأعراف التي تضع الرجل اللبناني، عربياً كان أو فينيقياً، في صورة الرجل المعطاء، المزود، والحامي عند الضرورة. مئات السنين مرت، والعديد من النظم الاجتماعية اندثرت، ونوعية الحياة انقلبت رأساً على عقب، ولا يزال على النساء وضع أنفسهن في حضن العائلة، وهي العقبة الأساس في إقرار قانون حماية النساء من العنف المنزلي، وحق المرأة في منح الجنسية لأولادها وزوجها، وأخيراً في إقرار احوال شخصية مدنية، قد تسهم في إنصاف النساء من جهة الإرث والزواج والطلاق.

Lebanon: Hotchpotch of religious laws restricts basic rights

The demand for equal religious, gender and other treatment for all Lebanese citizens has gained pace with some saying the time has come to review laws that confer inequality, especially on women. “As a women, I am not equal to my brother, husband or male friend," Rita Chemaly, a researcher and women’s activist in the capital Beirut, said. "My state doesn’t guarantee my rights. The constitution says that all Lebanese are equal, yet the laws do not [guarantee this]."