This article was edited one day after publishing to clarify that it was attempted rape.

The attempted rape and murder of Myriam Achkar in Sahel Alma has angered and outraged all of us. Myriam’s story is tragic and brings us face to face with the cruelest, most heinous of crimes. We are frustrated and enraged because it is unjust that she dies like this. A young woman, 28, takes a 20-minute walk from her home in the suburbs and gets sexually attacked and then murdered by a man.

That’s really what the story is: A young woman, 28, takes a 20-minute walk from her home in the suburbs and gets sexually attacked and murdered by a man.

But that’s not the story we’re hearing everywhere. What we’re hearing is: A young, Christian, virgin woman, 28, takes a 20-minute walk from her home to a church to pray, and gets sexually attacked and murdered by a Syrian worker.

And so the anger and outrage becomes Christian anger against Syrians. The family thirsts for his blood. They want to lynch him in the public square of Jounieh. They feel wronged as a religious community. This is violence from Syrians towards all Christians, and the Christians are too forgiving, they say. And they stress that Myriam was a practicing believer. She was not out in Gemmayze at 1am, they say. She was on her way to pray.

Nationality and religion have nothing to do with why Myriam was attacked. Really. I am not justifying the murder, God forbid anyone should justify the crime. And the rapist murderer, Fathi Jaber Al-Salatini should be tried, and if convicted, go to jail until he dies. I’m just stating a fact. Nationality and religion have nothing to do with the violence Myriam faced. What time it was, what she was wearing, what she was on her way to do, none of that matters. She was still brutally violated and her barbaric murder was not motivated by theft or hatred. It was motivated by rape.

Her story is, very sadly, not unique. I have heard dozens of stories about rape, from people and from survivors themselves. And so have you. If you haven’t, it just means that the women around you are not talking to you about it. In fact, the women in Lebanon are not talking about rape at all.

Our anger at this horrible crime – understandable anger, human anger – should be towards rape…

Towards the backwards rape laws in Lebanon.

Rapists most often get off the hook. Women are blamed. I don’t have statistics because we don’t have studies. But I know of many cases. Most recently, a European woman was raped and beaten up by two young Lebanese men. I met her and I saw the scars and bruises. The men have posted bail and are now building a case to fight her allegations in court. Our law, Article 503 says a rapist can be acquitted if he marries the victim. He would often get a reduced sentence if he proposes marriage. The maximum sentence is 5 years. Husbands are excluded from this law if they rape their wives. Rape is interpreted as a penis penetrating a vagina. All other forms of sexual violence are not criminalized. This is the law the governs rape in Lebanon. This is the law we should revolt against.

Towards the police who never take rape complaints seriously.

Our police force is not trained to handle rape cases. They ask a woman what she was wearing and why she was where she was. They ask her if she is married. The forensic doctor examines her on the same bed where police officers sleep between shifts. That is if a woman is brave enough or has enough faith in the police to report rape. In one rape case that happened in the summer, a woman had to return to the police station 3 times before they finally wrote down her complaint and promised to investigate it.

Towards the municipalities who don’t provide enough lighting or protection.

Our streets are unsafe. Women are subject to sexual harassment on the streets – any street in any part of Lebanon – 24 hours a day. Lewd comments, stalking, following in a car, propositions for sex, groping, you name it, it happens 24 hours a day to almost every woman, young women especially, every day. And our protective measure, often, is to tell women not to be on that street, at that time, alone. It’s a stupid measure. What we need is municipalities to take sexual harassment seriously, to have enough security that punishes harassment, to have adequate lighting, to respond to complaints. Outside one university campus in Metn is a women’s dorm where men gather every night to harass every woman who enters and exits. They have complained to the university and the municipality and nothing was done about it. When we allow, as a society, sexual violence to be dismissed and joked about and belittled, we allow for rape to go unaddressed.

Towards the sexist culture that promotes the sexual objectification of women.

Women’s bodies are used, haphazardly and illogically, to sell just about anything. Selling taouk? Put a naked women on the ad. Selling a carpet? Put a naked woman on the ad. Selling a gadgets magazine? Put a naked woman on the cover. Everywhere we go, the image of the Lebanese woman we are promoting is one of sex and desire and objectification. There are often no heads on the bodies even, no people behind the bodies. In a media and advertising culture that promotes women as sex objects, how can we raise our girls to love and claim ownership over their own bodies? How can we raise our boys to not feel entitled to consume women’s bodies at their will? How can we call for the sexual liberation of women when we only understand sexual liberation as the commercial objectification of women?

Towards the silencing of women’s stories when they want to talk about rape.

It is extremely difficult for women (here and anywhere) to talk about rape. The shame, the self-blame, the guilt, the taboos, the excuses we give rapists first before we condemn them. In our country, we tell women not to get raped. We don’t tell men not to rape. When they do speak up, we either silence them to protect their “honor” or we ask them a million questions as if it were their fault. Rape is never a woman’s fault. We have not opened up the space, as a women’s movement and as a society, for women to come forward with rape stories and get the justice they deserve. We have not created the proper support systems to give them the services (legal, health, psychological, community support) they need. We have not taught our mothers and fathers to encourage their girls to always speak up, that nothing is taboo, that they must report sexual violence when it happens. We protect our girls by teaching them to always speak up. A woman can survive rape. She always does. Thousands of Lebanese women – your friends, your sisters, your colleagues – have survived rape. What traumatizes them is the guilt and shame they feel because you won’t listen to them or you will blame them or you will make them feel worthless.

Towards the excuses we give rapists.

Boys will be boys. Boys need to have sex, it’s a physiological need. He was her boyfriend, it’s her fault for dating him in the first place. He was turned on by her short skirt. He couldn’t control himself. She looks Russian, he thought she was a sex worker. He misunderstood her and thought she wanted it. She was too drunk. He was seduced by her eyes. She had kissed him so he assumed she wanted to have sex. A million excuses we will give men. Illogical, stupid excuses, all part of a system that won’t teach kids proper sex education but will justify sexual violence when it happens. A culture that equates men’s honor with honesty and nobility and courage and equates women’s honor with their vagina. We need to draw the firm line against all rape excuses, all justifications. We need to see men and women as equal sexual beings and demand the same levels of bodily autonomy for everyone. We need to treat everyone’s body – no matter what gender we attach to it – with dignity and respect.

All these misdirected hateful sentiments that have come out of Myriam’s attempted rape and murder, these racist feelings towards Syrian workers, these sectarian feelings, these vengeful feelings. We can understand the feelings. But we cannot condone how they are directed.

We honor Myriam’s memory by directing our anger at sexual violence. May she rest in peace and may the right justice be served. Fight rape.

It’s about time Lebanese mainstream media leveraged their power to promote social change in Lebanon. LBC’s Cheyef 7alak is a new initiative that is actively utilizing social media to encourage (well, by first embarrassing) respect among citizens in Lebanon.

One of their categories is about traffic. We’ve all been there. Their video and photo galleries poke fun at our weird attitudes towards driving. I’m not sure if they are aware of it, but they’re also critiquing the link between masculinity and road rage, which is a terrific thing!

Their most popular campaign to date has been about the simple courtesy of standing in line (a rare phenomenon in Lebanon) and their latest is about corruption. Check out the video below and follow them on Facebook and Twitter to engage!

Something has started to really piss me off in the twittersphere lately. Lebanese tweeps are taking on tweeting for companies or groups or (pseudo-)celebrities and don’t reveal the identity of the actual person tweeting.

For example, I recently found out that the person handling the @Zaven_K account is not really Zaven (dunno why I was under the impression that it was – maybe it’s cos he has a laptop in front of him all the time), but a fellow tweep. Naturally, I felt a little uneasy knowing that I had tweeted to @Zaven_K thinking I was talking to Zaven. But what’s worse is I didn’t know I was talking to that particular tweep.

Has anyone else felt the frustration with this?

I feel it is getting a little silly – especially with a lot of tweeps becoming “social media experts” for hire. We think we are talking to management of a certain company whereas we are talking to the same people.

I think it is best practice that every non-person twitter account reveal who is tweeting behind it. For example, the @GIGAlb team does it well by adding ^initials to every tweet that is not a standard link. Or, another example is @iams who give you the handles of who is tweeting in the bio. I’m not saying it should go for every single tweet, but at least when conversing with people on twitter.

So if you’re tweeting for another handle, please reveal yourself in the bio, through ^initials, or through a list of tweeps who tweet from that account. Don’t hide behind handles – it can become deceptive.

You can read the full post in Arabic about the Lebanese Parliament vote to cancel Article 562 of the Penal Code that offers reduced sentences for “honor” crimes.

The Committee for Administration and Justice, headed by MP Robert Ghanem, had raised the recommendation to cancel Article 562 back on May 16, 2011. The matter was put to a vote as the last point on the agenda of the legislative parliamentary meeting yesterday. Some MPs argued against the annulment: Butros Harb, Samir El Jisr, Imad El Hout, and Ali Fayyad. Others argued for removing Article 562: Sami Gemayel, Elie Keyrouz, Antoine Zahra, Marwan Hamadeh, Ghassan Moukhaiber, and Elie Aoun, and their arguments were good.

The vote finally passed FOR and the article should now officially be removed from the Penal Code. I could not find information on the voting numbers – I will post those when I do. Nayla Tueni and Gilberte Zouein (who represent half of the women in parliament since we only have four) were not even present.

It is important to note that Saada Allaw from AsSafir had written an article objecting to the annulment of Article 562 without looking at Article 252 as well. Article 252 allows for reduced sentences on crimes committed in a state of rage. She argues that many judges in Lebanon would frame “honor” crimes as ones committed in a state of rage and criminals could still benefit from reduced sentences. Although she is right, I don’t think we could have a Penal Code that does not distinguish between pre-meditated murder and second degree murder. So I am not sure what the solution would be – perhaps to forbid its use when it comes to gender-based violence. Thoughts?

The important thing now is that this small and long overdue victory does not take our eyes off the crucial battle of sending the bill to Protect Women from Family Violence into Parliament for a vote. It is right now still in the Special Committee and might be vetoed through the pressure of religious groups. “Honor” crimes are a direct result of the vicious cycle of gender-based violence going unpunished and remaining a taboo in Lebanon. So if we’ve agreed to cancel those, we might as well install protective laws against violence all together.

In all cases, congratulations to the women’s movement on this victory

Yesterday, a group of independent activists demonstrated in front of the Syrian embassy in Beirut to express solidarity with the people of Syria and condemn the Ramadan Massacre in Hama. Shortly after they had stood there in silence, a groups of thugs arrived violently chanting pro-Bashar slogans. The activists formed a human line to separate the two groups. Then another group approached from the other side with knives, canes, and metal chairs and began attacking the protestors. Many fled into nearby buildings, restaurants and shops and were still followed by the thugs who lurked around Hamra for hours after, continuing to beat up the protestors. Two police officers who were there at the beginning disappeared soon after and none of the army officers or police who were around the area interfered to stop the attacks. Check the video below for a scene of the horrific attack.

Some protestors suffered heavy injuries from the beatings and are still in the hospital, while many others suffered beatings, cuts, and bruises. Activists head to the Hobeich police station to report the attacks and found zero cooperation from the police. The perpetrators must and will be prosecuted for their illegal attacks and all Ministries are held accountable for failing to protect their citizens to express themselves freely and peacefully. This is an atrocity and we must not be silent about it.

Check a link about the attacks here http://bit.ly/rcYjIX and @fattoosh live tweets from yesterday.

Guest Post by Jad Baaklini

On July 1, an independent group of anti-sectarian activists organizing within the Matn region convened a discussion of Christian thought and Secularism by University of Balamand lecturer and cleric Joseph Massouh. ‘3ala Matn el 3elmaniye/On Board Secularism’, which I am a member of, organized this event to address a problem it faced while agitating against the sectarian system in the past few months, as part of the Isqat al Nizam movement; given the demographic make-up of our region, most people we spoke to understood our cause as a cipher for a majoritarian coup aimed at further marginalizing the Christians at best, or a project of outright ‘Islamification’ at worst.

We felt we needed to approach our community from a perspective different from the usual left-leaning narrative; while our region has had a long history of progressive-nationalist political activity, we wanted to engage with those who do not share these points of reference, and take their concerns seriously. It was important for us to communicate how the secular state that we call for is not something to fear nor at odds with their culture and upbringing.

On the contrary, during his talk Massouh went as far as saying that even when basing himself purely on Christian values and points of reference, the case for secularism is very strong; “as a cleric, it is my religious duty to protest against the sectarian system and not just my national one,” he insisted.

Massouh began his cogent and engaging argument by highlighting the roots of secular thought in Europe, saying that Christianity, when understood as a social phenomenon and not as the teachings of Christ himself, has had a “black history” full of war. In his opinion, secularism in Europe freed both citizens and religious authorities alike by allowing priests to focus on their proper role as interpreters of spiritual matters instead of dictating people’s lives.

He then went on to outline the history of anti-sectarian thought within the Libano-Syrian Christian community, recalling Boutrous Boustani’s ridicule of the system around 150 years ago in the journal Nafeer Sourya in which he called sectarianism “backwardness” and “barbarism”.

“The system always generates war and yet we still say that ours is a pluralist system, a ‘message’,” Massouh continued. “Incidentally, John Paul II’s statement about Lebanon was mistranslated; he didn’t say we are ‘greater than a nation’ (akbar min watan), he said we are ‘more than a nation’ (aktar min watan), and he’s right; we’re more than one nation.” He went on to say that this ‘message’ must be understood as in need of constant ‘re-writing’ (i3adat siyagh) in order to build a unifying civic and national identity.

Massouh then explained how the “Greater Lebanon” period established the current confessionalist balance: “We Christians were the majority and we had power, but failed to build a state. We never had a ‘man of state’ (rajul dawle),” he insisted. “If we did, he would have left us something of a state. No, they were all concerned with benefiting from it.”

Massouh asked Christians to stop thinking in terms of numbers, an idea echoed later by an audience member who put it best saying: “stop counting!” Massouh stressed on the fact that population size is no guarantee of anything, adding provocatively that within the current system, we cannot expect non-Christian sects to be charities; “they are not Caritas.” Christians looking for protection and existential guarantees can only expect to find it under secularism, he concluded.

So how does Massouh understand this system? He differentiated between laïcité and sécularisme, with the latter holding a (materialist) position with respect to religion itself, while the former aiming only to drive a wedge between secular (i.e. non-clerical) affairs of the state and the spiritual affairs of religious authorities. Hence, Massouh advocated laïcié and not anti-religious secularism, but also insisted that people have a right to non-belief. “Just because my father is Orthodox doesn’t mean I should remain one; why should a priest rule over me [in marital affairs] just because I was born that way?”

“People have a right to leave their sect; we [clerics] would be acting in bad faith (nifaq) if we did not allow them to leave,” he insisted.

Secularism according to Massouh would confer full citizenship to people: “If I were born a Sunni in Koura, where the only parliamentary seats are for Orthodox people, I would not be a full citizen; I would be living in dhimmitude.”

“Women are not allowed to confer citizenship to their children if their father is non-Lebanese,” he continued. “The fear is that they may marry Palestinians… Can’t a woman fall in love with a Palestinian? Jesus was a Palestinian!”

Massouh criticized Islamic institutions that do not accept laws that protect women from domestic violence, for example, but he also criticized Christians who say that they will accept such civil laws when Muslims accept them. He urged people to support these measures based on their principles, saying that “waiting is not part of Christian belief; we work on bringing God’s Kingdom in the here and now”.

Wrapping up his talk, Massouh warned that the current system did not help Christians, asking those of the faith in the room to remember the secularist tradition of their great grandparents, adding: “clerics who defend the sectarian system speak against Christ.”

While some in the audience asked questions indicating that they were still not convinced about secularism itself or the current Isqat al Nizam movement, the feedback overall was very positive. One audience member told me later that not only was Massouh’s case for secularism made very well (“he is more engaging than Gregoire Haddad even!”), basics of Christianity became much clearer to him for the first time.

3ala Matn el 3elmaniye/On Board Secularism hopes to organize more events in line with our belief in community-based, regionally-aware activism, and offers this discussion as a model for others working within areas that may not be immediately hospitable to secularism to emulate and develop.

If you would like to get in touch with us, please join our Facebook group or follow us on Twitter: @MATNel3elmaniye

ALEF (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.

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.

Here’s another new resource I came across following my discovery of the Legal Agenda last month. The Lebanese Center for Policy Studies has launched a newsletter

which will serve as a regular mean of communicating LCPS policy research activities and outputs. In each issue, we will provide our readers with a brief synopsis about our roundtable discussions, our current research projects, conferences we organized and participated in, grants awarded, and upcoming initiatives.

You can check out the first issue April / May 2011 here.

After the announcement of the new all-male Lebanese cabinet on Monday, journalists asked MP Michel Aoun – the main winner in PM Mikati’s new government formation – about the lack of female participation. He replied with:

We did not have any women candidates to nominate , but we welcome their opinions, my house is full of women, and I am very popular among the female population.

and:

You all know that women in Lebanon need more practice and experience in the public life so that she may become qualified for parliamentary and ministerial work.

Clearly, we have a serious gender inequality & stereotyping problem. It is becoming more prominent and more exemplified in our dysfunctional political sphere that there is no room in Lebanese politics for women. People have said to me: what do you care that there are no women when all politicians are corrupt? La2, I care.  Of course I don’t want sexist, corrupt women in power any more than I want sexist, corrupt men in power either. I want good, strong women and men who care about social issues and the people’s concerns. But the current regression (illustrated below) demonstrates clearly that we not only have a problem of getting people outside of sectarian politics into the governing sphere. We also have a problem of getting women into government and parliament full stop.

Aoun’s comments – like all of his counterparts – show that the ruling elite have no awareness whatsoever of the importance of women’s political participation.  To say that there are no qualified women (out of a population of 2 million) is extremely offensive. And no, we have not forgotten the FPM’s famous appeal to women in the 2009 elections: Sois Belle et Vote.

The chart below illustrates the regression in Lebanese parliament and government from 2005 to the present.

I wonder how many election campaigns in 2013 will try to sell themselves to women.