BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanese women may be known as the Arab world’s most liberal but they are by no means the region’s most liberated considering antiquated laws that reduce them to second-class citizens.

“The law in this country still considers a woman as being inferior,” complained sociologist Rafif Sidaoui.
From domestic violence to rape to adultery, the rights of women often fall by the wayside in this multi-confessional sectarian society, nonetheless deemed avant-garde in the mostly conservative Middle East.

“One of the absurd laws on the books allows a rapist to be exempt from prison if he marries his victim,” said Ezzat Mroue, vice-president of the Women’s Rights Committee (WRC).
“A few years ago, there was a major scandal when a young man, who was after his cousin, kidnapped her from her university,” she added.

“He raped her and then brought her before a sheikh who married them.

“The result was that he was not guilty in the eyes of the law,” Mroue said.
And although so-called “honour crimes” are not widespread in Lebanon, as in some other Arab countries, every year a number of women are killed by male relatives under the pretext of defending the family honour.
Under the law, the murderer can benefit from “mitigating circumstances”.

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