Negotiating Gender Justice between State, Religion, and NGOs: A Lebanese Case

Anne Grung

doi:10.3390/rel9060175

Abstract

This article explores part of the process of passing a law in the Lebanese Parliament on 1 April 2014 called “Law on the protection of women and other members of the family from domestic violence,” also known as the ‘Protection Law’ or Law 293. In a United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) project on Religion, Politics and Gender Equality, the theorists José Casanova and Anne Phillips are engaged in establishing a transnational perspective on religious gender politics. The article then draws on written documentation regarding the discourse connected to the draft law at that time and on field interviews. The interviews were conducted in the period 2013–2016 with religious leaders and resource persons in Christian, Sunni, and Shi’a communities in Lebanon, and with key persons in the NGOs KAFA and ABAAD. An analysis of the arguments for and against the law before it was passed displays the larger field of intersection between feminism and religious practices and the consequences of the Lebanese dual court system. As a study from the Lebanese context when Law 293 was being intensively discussed, the article shows both the authority and the vulnerability of the religious leaders associated with the dual court system. The article also reveals the ambiguity of feminist activists and NGOs toward the role of the religious communities and leaders in Lebanon.

Highlights

In a project by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) from2007–2010 on Religion, Politics and Gender Equality, Jose Casanova stated that “The religious politics of gender has become one of the most important issues facing humanity worldwide and is likely to remain an issue of increasing relevance for the foreseeable future” (Casanova and Phillip 2009, p. 17)
It has probably more to do with the view of religion in general, on whether religious traditions, as they exist in Lebanon, have anything useful to offer in the struggle for gender justice and the abolishment of violence against women (VAW)
The draft law on VAW/domestic violence was high on the public agenda, and one of the main reasons for this was how the religious communities interpreted its consequences

Summary

Introduction

Investigating the dynamics between women’s human rights and female citizenship in Lebanon must, relate to the complex structure of the dual court system Religious courts and their interpretation and ruling based on religious law do represent a power base for the Lebanese religious communities and provide income for the Islamic courts through the state employment of the staff and legitimizes how politics and religion are woven together in the country. One of them said it was the Lebanese churches that wanted the law because of their own restrictive practices of granting divorce This suggests that he viewed the draft law as a kind of ‘safety valve’ for abusive marriages among Christians so that the state would provide security for Christian women when the Christian religious courts could not grant them a divorce. One of them said: “This Sura is not about the obedience of the wife, it is about the responsibilities of the husband . . . According to Islamic law, it is illegal to hurt others”

Timothy 2:8–15:

Strategies to Combat VAW in the Two NGOs

Concluding Remarks