Civil Marriage Law, Citizenship, and Democracy in Lebanon

Abstract

In this essay, I relate the failure to enact the civil marriage law in Lebanon to the centrality of women’s citizenship rights in traditional religious groups’ identity. After a brief introduction and definition of key terms in part I, I summarize the debates over the 1998 proposed “optional” civil law bill and focus on the centrality of women’s rights issue within the Lebanese culture/state. In part III, I point out the perceived tensions between modern and conservative woman’s rights and their impact on woman’s welfare, and in part IV, I survey three proposals to resolve the historical tensions between multicultural group identity and women’s rights. In part V, I offer my perception on how the current Lebanese government is addressing such tensions.