Lebanon abolishes law allowing rapists to marry victims

Lebanon on Wednesday abolished a law that allows rapists escape
punishment if they marry their victims in a move applauded by
women’s rights campaigners.

On the heels of Jordan scrapping its law, and Tunisia in July,
Lebanese lawmakers voted to do away with article 522 in the
Lebanese penal code.

The article includes a provision that lets a rapist off the hook
if he marries his victim, and its abolition follows a lengthy, and
often graphic, campaign by activists.

“This is definitely a step that needs to be celebrated for all
women in Lebanon,” Roula Masri of local rights group Abaad told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Abaad has campaigned against the country’s law for more than a
year, posting billboards of women in bloodied and torn wedding
gowns.

The caption reads: “A white dress does not cover the rape.”

In April, campaigners hung white wedding dresses from nooses on
Beirut’s popular seafront.

“This is a very positive and long-overdue development for the
protection of women’s rights in Lebanon,” Bassam Khawaja, Lebanon
researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation by phone.

“At the same time in Lebanon, there are several long overdue
women’s rights developments that we still have to tackle.

“So Parliament should … immediately pass legislation to end
marital rape and also child marriage, which is still legal in
Lebanon,” said Khawaja.

Rights groups hope the momentum now flows to Arab countries with
similar provisions such as Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Syria.

Some countries in the region have already closed similar
loopholes.

Egypt repealed its law in 1999, and Morocco overhauled its law
in 2014 following the suicide of a 16-year-old girl and the
attempted suicide of a 15-year-old, both of whom were forced to
marry their rapists.

Lebanon on Wednesday abolished a law that allows rapists escape
punishment if they marry their victims in a move applauded by
women’s rights campaigners.

On the heels of Jordan scrapping its law, and Tunisia in July,
Lebanese lawmakers voted to do away with article 522 in the
Lebanese penal code.

The article includes a provision that lets a rapist off the hook
if he marries his victim, and its abolition follows a lengthy, and
often graphic, campaign by activists.

“This is definitely a step that needs to be celebrated for all
women in Lebanon,” Roula Masri of local rights group Abaad told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

Abaad has campaigned against the country’s law for more than a
year, posting billboards of women in bloodied and torn wedding
gowns.

The caption reads: “A white dress does not cover the rape.”

In April, campaigners hung white wedding dresses from nooses on
Beirut’s popular seafront.

“This is a very positive and long-overdue development for the
protection of women’s rights in Lebanon,” Bassam Khawaja, Lebanon
researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation by phone.

“At the same time in Lebanon, there are several long overdue
women’s rights developments that we still have to tackle.

“So Parliament should … immediately pass legislation to end
marital rape and also child marriage, which is still legal in
Lebanon,” said Khawaja.

Rights groups hope the momentum now flows to Arab countries with
similar provisions such as Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Syria.

Some countries in the region have already closed similar
loopholes.

Egypt repealed its law in 1999, and Morocco overhauled its law
in 2014 following the suicide of a 16-year-old girl and the
attempted suicide of a 15-year-old, both of whom were forced to
marry their rapists.