[LINK] "Marriage Made in Civil Heaven"

[rfmcdonald]

Zak Brophy's Inter Press Service article describes the continuing absence of civil marriage in Lebanon, an intentional policy of the Lebanese state--as of most other Middle Eastern states, democratic Israel included--to prevent the emergence of a secular public sphere where religious sects would no longer be able to determine what sort of families get formed by who. Here's hoping for change!

In Lebanon social and political integration is realised through sectarian affiliation; it is within the legal institutions of the 18 different religious sects that marriages are traditionally authorised. “It is really a different feeling when you feel like a human being getting married to another human being based on human rights and not on sectarian rights,” the groom, Nidal Darwish, tells IPS.

Darwish and his bride Kholoud Sukkariyeh tied the knot in a secret ceremony at her house with just her brother for a witness, and a notary to oversee the signing of the contract. But once their marriage entered the public domain it soon became a hot and controversial topic of discussion across the country. What may in many societies seem a trivial matter cuts deep into Lebanon’s social, political and religious fabric.

[. . .]

While the political community has come out split over the issue of civil marriage, there have been varying degrees of opposition from the religious establishments of different sects. The grand mufti of the Sunni Muslim community opposed the idea of civil marriage most virulently. He threatened in a religious edict, or fatwa, “Every Muslim official, whether a deputy or a minister, who supports the legalisation of civil marriage, even if it is optional, is an apostate and outside the Islamic religion.”

Civil marriages are not new per se to Lebanese couples. However, Darwish and Sukarriyeh broke the course set by thousands of other like-minded lovers who travel to foreign countries such as Cyprus or Turkey every year to tie the knot in a civil ceremony.

These marriages are recognised in Lebanon, and the Lebanese legal system can apply the civil marriage laws of the country in which the marriage was signed.

[. . .]

The dispute over the balance of religious and civil law in Lebanese society runs back to the very inception of the country and perhaps reached its apex in 2011 when tens of thousands of Lebanese, inspired by the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets to protest against the sectarian system in its entirety.

The first civil personal status law was submitted to parliament in 1971 but was rejected, and the sectarian divisions within society only became further entrenched and exacerbated during the bitter civil war from 1975 to 1991.

In the wake of the conflict former president Elias Hrawi presented a draft law on civil marriage in 1998, which received the majority of votes in the cabinet. However, then prime minister Rafiq Hariri shelved the legislation and didn’t send it to parliament.

“Of course this was not legal but Hariri was was controlling the government to serve his position and the sects,” Tony Daoud, civil society activist with local NGO, Chaml tells IPS.