Progress Amid Resistance

LEBANON 27928The amended law states: “By marriage, rights and duties shall be equal between bothspouses in matters relating to the communion of married life.” It also holds that “thespouses must have a shared home or the likeness thereof,” whereas the previous lawcommanded that “the wife keep the house of her husband.” Third Periodic Report ofStates Parties: Lebanon, 89.29In February 2009, Minister of Interior Ziad Baroud succeeded in getting the governmentto agree that citizens are free to omit their religion on their ikhraj qayd, the familycivil registry record. Stating one’s religion on this document was previously mandatory.30The marriage age for Sunni and Druze women is 17; for Shi’a it is the age of puberty;for the Catholic denominations, Armenian Orthodox, and Syrian Orthodox it is 14;and for Greek Orthodox it is 18.31Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 87.32Article 58 of the Islamic personal status law permits Muslim men to marry women ofany monotheistic faith while invalidating marriages between Muslim women and non-Muslim men. Article 47 allows a bride’s guardian to annul a properly executed marriageif it is to an “unqualified” man.33Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 87.34Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 95.35Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 96, 98.36Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 94.37Ikbal Doughan, personal communication, 2009.38Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 94.39UNDP, Lebanon National Human Development Report: Toward a Citizen’s State (Beirut:UNDP, 2009), 166, http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/nationalreports/arabstates/lebanon/NHDR_Lebanon_20082009_En.pdf.40A. Charara-Baydoun, Killing of Women and the Lebanese Judiciary System (Beirut: KAFA[Enough] Violence and Exploitation, 2008), in Arabic.41Second Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 40.42Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, “Lebanon,” in 2008 Country Reportson Human Rights Practices (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 2009), http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119120.htm.43The 2008 GDP growth figures for Lebanon vary from 7 percent to 8.5 percent, dependingon the source. The World Bank’s estimate is 8 percent. World Bank Data Finder(Online Source), http://datafinder.worldbank.org. Also see International MonetaryFund, Lebanon: Report on Performance Under the Program Supported by Emergency Post-Confl ict Assistance (Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, July 2009), 1, 6, 9,http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2009/cr09213.pdf.44Third Periodic Report of States Parties: Lebanon, 96, 97.45UNDP, Lebanon National Human Development Report, 136.46World Bank, The Status and Progress of Women in the Middle East and North Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007), 21, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMENA/Resources/MENA_Gender_BW2007.pdf.47World Bank, “GenderStats—Create Your Own Table,” http://go.worldbank.org/MRER20PME0 [accessed December 15, 2009].