Feminist Attempts
Campaigns
Here, I throw in blog posts about campaigns I’m running, planning, taking part of – online or on the ground.
Help us Build a Socio-Economic Elections Platform
1
Dear friends,
We need your help in building our platform for Take Back Parliament. We have compiled a long list of issues to draft positions on (see below). I am sure it is incomplete (a) and I need your expertise in different issues to draft one-page positions on them (b).
So if you’ve worked on one of these before and you can help out with resources, please do. If you can draft the one-pager for us, please do as well. Here I have uploaded a word document that is a draft of our women’s rights position. You can use the same format: stating the problem and stating the changes you want in bullet form.
I know you are probably thinking: gosh, there is too much to change, but let’s try condensing things into different papers and tangible demands. You don’t have to write a thesis, just 1-2 pages will do fine. We will have time to elaborate on our positions later on. Our deadline for these papers is end of October, after which we will post them for the public’s review and feedback.
Message me if you want to talk more and thank you very much!
Green and Public Spaces
Reclaiming of Public Property
Efficient Urban Planning
Preservation of Lebanese Heritage
Investment in Culture and Art
School Educational Reform
Lebanese University Reform
Internet Freedom and Access
New and Alternative Media
Freedom of Speech
Municipality Reform
Regional Decentralization
A Smaller Parliament and Reduction of MP Salaries
A Civil Personal Status Law
Secularism
Cancellation of Confessional Quotas in Public Positions
Administrative Reform
Electoral Reform
Affordable and efficient public transportation
Traffic Reduction
Efficient Electricity Access
Efficient Water Access
Progressive Healthcare for All
A National Foreign and Defense Policy
Complete End to Arbitrary Detention and Torture
Human Rights
Women’s Rights
Rights of People with Disabilities
Workers’ Rights
Migrant Rights
Sexual and Bodily Rights
Prison Reform
Accountability and Memory of the Civil War
Progressive Taxation
Fiscal Reform
Support for Entrepreneurship
Sustainable Development of Agriculture
Sustainable Development of Industry
Reforming the Rent Law
Recycling and Zero Waste
Animal Rights
Environmental Preservation
I Have a Feeling Our Time Has Come
10386 days
This feeling has been creeping up inside me for some weeks now. It used to be a dream and then it became an idea and now it’s a lot more powerful than that. Now it’s become a feeling.
I have a feeling that our time has come. We, the people on the margins. The angry, disenfranchised people who pay too much for bread and fuel and rent and water and parking. We, the kids who grew up in the 80s. We, who are unamused by boring media and mindless entertainment. We, who’ve been struggling for years trying to create small, important projects that go nowhere and achieve nothing. Civil marriage. Women’s rights. Green spaces. Anti-corruption. Renewable energy. Equal pay. Migrant rights. Bicycle lanes. Refugee rights. Public schools. Public universities. Social security. Protect our beaches. Protect our workers. Protect our Internet. Protect love. Save our animals. Save our forests. Save our heritage. End torture. End the civil war. Build a public transportation system that works already!
How much longer are we supposed to fight – alone and secluded – for what is right? How much longer do we bang our heads against a Parliament that doesn’t give a damn? Over 300 laws they have in their drawers and they waste their time – time that we pay for with our sweat and hard work – to quarrel over issues that don’t even concern us. Better yet, they create issues and convince us that they are protecting us from each other. Who protects us from the daily struggle it takes to live in this country that millions of us have abandoned because it get more and more unbearable every day?
I have a feeling that thousands of you agree that enough is enough. And what’s different this time is that I have a feeling thousands of you want to do something about it. What better thing to do than take back Parliament? Why do we have to fight against a lazy, inefficient, dysfunctional Parliament that will never give us our basic socio-economic rights? Our basic human dignity? Why does Parliament have to be ruled by war lords and billionaires and dynasties of the same families replicating the same incompetent sectarian crooks that feed on the hatred of their own people?
We can imagine a better quality of life for ourselves and our children and our brothers and sisters. We can find it in our hearts to translate this (sometimes inexplicable) love for Lebanon into a revolution that gives victory to the poor and the wronged. We can rise above $100 bribes and family loyalties and herd mentality to put our votes where our hearts really are. We can find and vote for MPs that are young and secular and progressive and hard-working and feminist and independent and intelligent. We can take back Parliament – the highest legislative authority in the country – and set it back on its original mission: to organize the lives of its people in the best possible and most egalitarian way. We can convince everybody around us. We are the majority and there is not a single person suffering today from unemployment or poverty or stolen rights or that huge, enormous feeling of helplessness and depression that will not want to hold on to the dream that change is possible.
I have a feeling that our time has come.
And what else does one do with feelings but run?
ALEF Launches Campaign Against Torture in Lebanon
0ALEF (Act for Human Rights) have put up new billboards in Lebanon Azebak Mesh Raha calling for the elimination of torture in detention centers. Jails, prisons, and other detention centers in Lebanon are notorious for their ill-treatment of detainees. Men and women – especially marginalized communities such as migrant workers, drug users, sex workers, LGBTs – regularly get tortured physically and verbally. It is also common practice for the police to torture confessions out of detained individuals.
Non-state actors such as political parties who rule with authority in their areas also use torture techniques to intimidate and control people. The Lebanese state should as well be held responsible for these violations of human rights. Check out this As Safir article for more stats from ALEF’s studies.
So check out their campaign and support it by spreading the Facebook page on your social networks.
Call to Bloggers
Bloggers who are interested in joining ALEF’s Torture Monitoring Unit can contact layal.samaha [at] alefliban.org and learn more about how they can become active in reporting torture in Lebanon. The unit holds regular trainings on how to identify torture, where it happens, how to document and report it, and other useful skills. Bloggers are an integral part of this unit alongside traditional media journalists.
June 20: Lebanon & Egypt Blog about Sexual Harassment
4704 days
Activists in Egypt launched a campaign to blog and tweet about sexual harassment on Monday, June 20. The team behind the Adventures of Salwa joined the campaign as well with a parallel blogging day in Lebanon. Please join this very important cause – you can make a difference by adding your voice to ours on June 20!
Bloggers
Put up a blog post on Monday with a personal story, an opinion, an illustration, a rant, a call to action – anything that raises awareness about sexual harassment in your city.
Tweeps & Facebookers
Help spread & share the blog posts using the hashtag #EndSH. Tweet and status your experiences and opinions too.
Useful Links
- Qaweme Harassment – a blog gathering reports of sexual harassment around Lebanon.
- Adventures of Salwa – the campaign against sexual harassment in Lebanon.
- New Video: Resist Harassment – raising awareness on everyday racist & sexist behavior on the streets of Beirut.
Demonstration to Protect Women from Family Violence
2723 days
Photo by @joellehatem - click on it for the full album
Thank you to everyone who joined us yesterday at the demonstration to Protect Women from Family Violence!
Check out some of the press coverage today: Al Akhbar, Daily Star, L’Orient le Jour, AsSafir, Al Balad, Al Diyar, Al Moustaqbal, and Al Joumhouriya.
You can also check out the #protectwomen hashtag on twitter for the live updates.
I estimate that we must have been around 800 protesting yesterday – very diverse crowd. The presence of lots of political parties provoked mixed reactions from the feminists, some applauding their participation in the demo (which is a rarity in Lebanon) and others thought their presence was hypocritical and tainted what should have been a people’s march. I personally don’t like marching alongside any party for whatever cause because I dislike all of them, but I respect Kafa’s decision to involve them as partners in the campaign. If there’s any organization in Lebanon that can bring very different groups together at the same table, it’s Kafa, and that requires hard work and guts, so kudos to them.
It was a little disappointing to see that the largest coalition of our women’s movement could only bring together hundreds of people. We are a long way from becoming a mass movement. And certainly the worst thing about the march was the chant “Rfa3 eedak, koun rijjeil” (targetted at parliamentarians). Shou ossitna we still endorse the idea of “being a man?”
All in all, it was a successful demo and we’ll keep our eyes on the developments of the proposed law.
القانون اللبناني للأحوال الشخصية
1Here are the main characteristics of the new Civil Personal Status Law prepared by Dr. Augarite Younan and Dr. Walid Slaiby and presented to Parliament. It sounds so delicious, makes me want to get married 
I will write up some critiques of the new proposed law that different activists have raised soon. In the meantime, you can join the group on Facebook to support and learn more.
For more information visit www.chaml.org
الدين والمذهب
لا تمييز أو تفرقة بسبب من اختلاف الدين أو المذهب
يحتفظ كل من الزوجين بدينه وبحرّية معتقده
الحق بإقامة احتفال ديني بعد الزواج المدني الرسمي
الحقّ لكلّ من عقد زواجه بموجب هذا القانون أن يحتفل بزواج مباركة روحية لدى أي مرجع ديني
حق للمتزوجين سابقًا مدنيًا
إنصاف من عقد زواجـًا مدنيًا خارج لبنان من قبل: الحق في الالتحاق بهذا القانون
وحقّ للبنانيين في الخارج
يتمّ زواج اللبناني واللبنانية في الخارج أمام قنصل لبنان… أو أمام السلطة الأجنبيّة المختصّة
الرضى… وسنّ الزواج
لا ينعقد الزواج إلاّ برضى كل من الزوجين
سنّ الزواج للذكر والأنثى: 18
حقوق لذوي الحاجات الخاصة
لا تـُعتبر مانعًا أمام الزواج الإعاقة غير المؤثـّرة في الصحة الإدراكية لصاحبها أو صاحبتها، أو في الصحة الإنجابية لأيّ منهما شرط إعلام الشريك بالأمر مسبقـًا وبعد التوافق بينهما
تـُراعى بالنسبة إلى مكان عقد الزواج ضرورات ذوي الحاجات الخاصة والمعوّقين
في حال تعذّر التعبير عن قول “نعم” بشكل صريح عند عقد الزواج للأسباب المتعلـّقة ببعض حالات الإعاقة ولذوي الحاجات الخاصة، ينبغي توفير أيّ وسيلة ملائمة تسهـّل ذلك
على المحكمة توفير الوسائل المناسبة للزوجين أو للأطفال من ذوي الحاجات الخاصة والمعوّقين خلال جلسات الوساطة والاستماع
إنشاء محاكم مدنية للدولة
يُستحدث في الجمهورية اللبنانية ملاكـًا خاصـًا بالأحوال الشخصية المدنية بكامل متطلباته المؤسساتية والبشرية
جهاز مختص بالوساطة العائلية وإدارة النزاعات
يتمّ تشكيل جهاز مختص داخل هذا الملاك: للوساطة العائلية والإدارة اللاعنفية للنزاعات الأسرية وحالات الاستماع إلى الأطفال وتقديم الاستشارة العلمية الملزمة
نص خاص لقول الـ “نعم” وشكل خاص للقـَسـَم
يعتمد الملاك اللبناني المستحدث للأحوال الشخصية المدنية نصـًا موحدًا لقراءته أمام طالبي الزواج، ولطرح السؤال على كل منهما عمّا إذا كان يريد الآخر زوجـًا له، وذلك بحيث لا يتضمـّن هذا النص أيّ إشارة إلى الدين أو المذهب وبحيث لا يرتكز في أيّ حال من الأحوال إلى وسائل دينية أو مذهبية لتثبيت القول والقـَسَم بالقبول بالزواج
الغاية: الحب وإسعاد كل من الزوجين للآخر – وسعادة الأطفال
يتعهـّد كل من الزوجين تجاه الآخر بالمحبة وإسعاد الآخر وبالتعاون وحسن المعاملة وبالسلوك غير العنفي، ويشتركان في شؤون الأسرة وفي تربية الأطفال
يلتزم الزوجان التعهّد المتبادل بالحرص على سعادة الأطفال ثمرة زواجهما وعلى الاعتناء بهم وبهنَ من النواحي المادية والمعنوية والجسدية والنفسية والحقوقية، مع إيلاء الأولوية لحمايتهم في حالات السوء والنزاع الزوجيّ
احتفاظ كل من الزوجين بحرّيته الشخصية في مسائل جوهرية
تبقى لكل من الزوجين، ما لم يختـَر أحدهما غير ذلك وبملء إرادته، حريّة المعتقد، وحريّة التصرّف بأمواله الخاصّة، وحريّة العمل التي لا تتعارض مع الموجبات الزوجيّة الأساسيّة
إعطاء قيمة للعمل المنزلي
يشترك الزوجان في الإنفاق على العائلة بنسبة مواردهما الماليّة. وإذا لم يكن للمرأة أموالاً خاصّة ناتجة عن مشاريع وعمل ولا تتعاطى مهنة ببدل مالي، فالزوج هو الملزم بالإنفاق الماديّ المباشر، شرط اعتبار الزوجة شريكة في الإنفاق المنزلي من خلال تقدير قيمة العمل المنزلي كمورد أساسي للأسرة
يـُعتبَر العمل المنزلي للزوجة، وللزوج في حال كان يقوم بعمل منزلي منتظم وذي قيمة، موردًا أساسيًا للإنفاق المنزلي وتـُحتسب قيمته في التعويض في حالة الطلاق وتقدير الإرث وما سواها
تساوي في مسألة الطلاق
أسباب الطلاق هي واحـدة لـلرجل والمرأة، وحقّ طلب الطلاق بواسطة القضاء المدنيّ المختصّ هو واحد للرجل والمرأة على السواء
العنف المنزلي
الإيذاء الجسدي المقصود أو أي إيذاء آخر أو التهديد بخطر أكيد: سبب أساسي للمقاضاة ولطلب الهجر أو الطلاق
حضانة الطفل
لا يـُعتبر الطفل أو الطفلة تلقائيًا في عهدة الأب أو الأم للحضانة، إلا بنتيجة الاستشارة العلمية حول أولوية الصحة النفسية للطفل وللطفلة، من الجهاز الخبير المستحدث لشؤون الوساطة العائلية وإدارة النزاعات العائلية الناتجة عن تطبيق هذا القانون. كذلك الأمر بالنسبة إلى إعطاء حق الحضانة لعائلة الأم أو عائلة الأب
النفقة تتضمّن عناية متكاملة
النفقة للأطفال وللزوجين وللوالدين… تشمل المسكن والطعام والملبس والعلاج والتعليم والعناية الترفيهية
طفل “غير شرعي”
الطفل أو الطفلة ثمرة علاقة سبقت زواج والديه القانوني يكتسب صفة الطفل أو الطفلة شرعيًا بفعل زواجهما القانوني
تثبت بنوّة الطفلة أو الطفل المولود خارج إطار عقد الزواج القانوني، بالاعتراف الرضائي
مفردات أكثر إنسانية
الطفل والطفلة / به وبها/ حقهم وحقهن
“طفل غير شرعي” ← طفل أو طفلة ثمرة علاقة سبقت زواج والديه (ها) القانوني
“الحجر” ← المراقبة والوصاية ؛ المجنون ← فاقد الإدراك العقلي المثبت طبيًا؛
المعتوه ← المصاب بضعف دائم في الإدراك العقلي؛ السفيه ← المصاب بنمط سلوكيّ سيء
تساوي في الإرث
لا تمييز بين الذكور والإناث في الإرث
اختلاف الجنسية لا يمنع التوارث بين اللبنانيّين والأجانب إلاّ إذا كان القانون الوطني للأجنبي يمنع توريث اللبنانيّين أو يحدّ من حقهم بالإرث
اختلاف الدين والمذهب بين اللّبنانيين لا يمنع التوارث
يرث الطفل(ة) ثمرة علاقة من دون عقد زواج قانوني، كالطفل(ة) ثمرة عقد زواج قانوني، شرعيًا
يُعتبر الطفل(ة) المتبنَّى، بحكم الطفل(ة) الشرعي، في كل ما يتعلّق بحقوقه في الإرث
Anti-CEDAW Flyer
0726 days
The women’s committee of Dar Al Fatwa in the North of Lebanon have created this flyer bashing CEDAW and claiming that it is an attack on family values and on the psychological and physical particularities of women’s femininity.
If anything, they should be sued for horrible graphic design. Why do they have a suburban American-looking house that is being struck by lightning? Do we have such houses in Tripoli? Who’s being Western now, huh?
Also from Tripoli, posters calling for a demonstration today AGAINST the proposed bill to protect women from family violence.
I think this pubic battle between fundamentalist groups and the women’s movement in Lebanon is terrific. It could finally galvanize supporters to speak up and make themselves heard. And it brings out the opposition that we always knew existed but that didn’t take our efforts seriously before. See you at the demo on Sunday!
The Fight is Getting Ugly. Show Your Support for Women’s Rights!
3729 days
People, the lobby AGAINST the protection of women from family violence is starting to speak out with strong statements issued this week by many groups and political parties. Check out this story in As-Safir:
حملة من أجل “تكريس قوانين الأحوال الشخصية” الحالية: “قانون مناهضة العنف الأسري” يهمّش الدين والأخلاق
and this one on New TV:
نعيم قاسم: لسنا مع قانون مدني للأحوال الشخصية بلبنان لانه يخالف الشرع
Religious groups are also lobbying AGAINST the lifting of reservations off the CEDAW, which is an international convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women.
And so it is very important – now more than ever – to show that:
- We will NOT compromise on women’s human rights no matter what
- We believe in the protection of women from family violence as a basic right for women’s dignity and self-respect.
- We know from evidence that the lack of protection leads to the killing of women in many cases, in addition to their daily suffering from physical, emotional, economic and sexual violence.
- We reject the claim that “reconciliation” is the answer to family violence. When a wife or daughter is beaten, the perpetrator has crossed the line and “reconciliation” should NOT be the woman’s only option.
- We refuse to be pawns in the fighting and bickering of political parties and refuse to be used to further their propaganda and fundamentalist agendas.
- We stand as advocates for women’s human rights – men and women together – from all regions of Lebanon, all ages, all beliefs to say YES to a law that protects women from family violence.
Join us THIS SUNDAY to show your support in a demonstration at 11am from the Ministry of Interior to Riad el Solh in Beirut. Bring your friends and mothers and sisters to show that we will NOT BE SILENCED and we will NOT BE INTIMIDATED by anyone meen ma ken ykoun.
Second Year Commemorating War on Gaza
0Many things you can do this year and resolve to do in 2011:
- You can join the twitter campaigns on December 27 to promote justice for Gaza and remember the atrocities committed by Israel in December – January 2008. The two campaigns are #Gaza2 and #BoycottIsrael.
- Wear Red on Monday, December 27.
- Join and support the BDS Movement – the most powerful and growing movement to delegitimize the apartheid state of Israel. There are simple things you can do like refuse to buy Motorola, Ahava, Veolia, and other products. And there are bigger things you can do by joining your local BDS groups and their campaigns to boycott, divest, and sanction.
We’re Trending #Flotilla Today!
1
Friends, it is once again time to use social media to get a message across to the world. A flotilla of boats carrying human rights activists is right now on its way to Gaza via international waters in order to break the Israeli siege and deliver aid to the people. Will they succeed in their mission? Will they make history? What can we do to support them?
Let’s trend #flotilla on twitter all day tomorrow, Sunday, May 30, by tweeting news, thoughts, and links about the Freedom Flotilla’s trajectory to Gaza. Once we trend it, millions of people will see the term and click on it to find out what it means and why it’s trending. We will also be providing moral support and sailing (twailing?) in solidarity with the brave activists risking their lives on board the flotilla. Here’s what you can do:
- Be online on Sunday, May 30 starting 12pm Cairo time (5am New York time) and throughout the day. We want to get #flotilla trending by the early afternoon and keep it trending through the night.
- Let us know you have joined us. Sign up here or tweet to @nmoawad or @justicentric.
- Recruit fellow tweeps to join us.
- Use Facebook to get the message across.
- Get more information here: http://www.gazafreedommarch.org/cms/en/flotilla.aspx and here.
- Follow all the tweets on the #flotilla here.
Group trending is a lot of fun & will connect you to so many wonderful new tweeps. So get on board; we need every tweet. When tweeting, take note to:
- Hash #Flotilla only once (or else it doesn’t count).
- Don’t use the automatic retweet button (or else your tweet doesn’t count).
- Tweet often but not more than once or twice a minute (or else your account will get blocked).
- Tweet useful information about the #flotilla and #Gaza. Our mission is to raise awareness, not simple to trend.
