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The Legal Status of Married Women in Lebanon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Lamia Rustum Shehadeh
Lamia Rustum Shehadeh
Affiliation:
Lamia Rustum Shehadeh is Assistant Professor, Civilization Sequence Program, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
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Extract

Law plays a vital role in establishing not only regulations but actual thoughts and behavior in defining what is acceptable by society and what is to be considered natural or unnatural. Thus, as the laws dealt with here become symbols of what society believes to be natural or unnatural, they assume far more serious implications than their strictly legal context; hence, the significance of this study. The law is the arena where different views or philosophies are contested. Thus, Rosemary Coombe maintains that “law concludes or limits everyday struggles, authoritatively determines the qualities of individuals or groups, the social identities which people can lay claim to, and the ways in which personhood and experiences of self can be legitimately represented.” Furthermore, by legitimizing certain conceptions of the self, the law by default suppresses alternative conceptions.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , November 1998 , pp. 501 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

Notes

1 Eisenstein, Zillah R., The Female Body and the Law (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1988), 43.Google Scholar Cf. also Fineman, Martha Albertson and Thomadsen, Nancy Sweet, ed., At the Boundaries of Law (New York and London: Routledge, 1991);Google ScholarFrug, Mary Joe, Postmodern Legal Feminism (New York and London: Routledge, 1992);Google ScholarGoldstein, Leslie Friedman,“Can this Marriage Be Saved? Feminist Public Policy and Feminist Jurisprudence,” in Feminist Jurisprudence, ed. Goldstein, Leslie Friedman (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1992), 11–40;Google ScholarShanley, Mary Lyndon and Battistoni, Richard, “Afterword: Sexual Difference and Equality,” in Feminist Jurisprudence, 263–73.Google Scholar

2 Cited in Bower, Lisa C., “Unsettling ‘Woman’: Competing Subjectivities in No-Fault Divorce and Divorce Meditation,” in Feminist Jurisprudence, 210.Google Scholar

3 Ibid.

4 ibid., 223.

5 Eisenstein, The Female Body, 22.

6 Cited in ibid., 44.

7 Smart, Carol, Feminism and the Power of Law (London and New York: Routledge, 1989), 26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Cf. also Eisenstein, The Female Body, 45.

8 Ibid., 47.

9 Ibid., 42.

10 Baer, Judith A., “How Is Law Male? A Feminist Perspective on Constitutional Interpretation,” in Feminist Jurisprudence, 148.Google Scholar

11 For a full discussion, see Lahave, Pnina, “Raising the Status of Women through Law: The Case of Israel,” in Women and National Development: The Complexities of Change, ed. Wellesley Editorial Committee (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1977), 197–98;Google ScholarNicholas, Susan Cary, Price, Alice M., and Rubin, Rachel, Rights and Wrongs: Women's Struggle for Legal Equality (New York: The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 1986), xx;Google ScholarEisenstein, , The Female Body, 43–44.Google Scholar

12 Article 7. “All Lebanese citizens shall be equal before the law. All Lebanese citizens shall enjoy civil and political rights and support public charges and obligations without any distinction whatsoever.”Article 12. “All forms of public employment shall also be open to all Lebanese citizens…preference being solely on the basis of merit and capacity.” El-Gemayel, Antoine E., ed., The Lebanese Legal System, 2 vols. (Washington, D.C.: International Law Institute, 1985), 1: 24.Google Scholar

13 The three sects recognized by the government but with no distinct personal-status codes are the ʿAlawites, the Ismaʿilis, and the Orthodox Copts. The Orthodox Copts were the last to be recognized, according to Decree No. 553 issued on 24 July 1996. All three follow the personal-status codes closest to them-that is, the Jaʿfari and Orthodox codes, respectively.

14 Although many Jews left Lebanon during the war, a sizable community still resides in Lebanon. But the law in Lebanon is such that even if one family remains, it has to abide by its own personal-status code. This justifies the study of the Jewish personal code, which is still part and parcel of the official Personal Status Code.

15 For further reading, cfShahin, Ibrahim ʾanta wa'l-Qanūn (You and the Law), 2 vols. (1994, 1995); ʿAli M. Jaʿfar, Ta'rikh al-Qawānin wa-Marāhil al-Tashrīʿ al-Islāmi (History of the Laws and the Stages of Islamic Legislation), 2nd ed. (Beirut: Al-Muʾassasah al-Jāmiʿiyyah lil-Dirāsāt wal-Nashr wal-Tawzīʿ, 1989);Google ScholarMahmasāni, Subhī, al-Mabādiʾ al-Sharʿiyyah wal-Qānūniyyah (Legal Principles), 7th ed. (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm Lil-malāyīn, 1981);Google ScholarBīlānī, Bashīr. Qawānīn al-Ahwāl al-Shakhsiyyah fi Lubnān (The Personal Status Codes in Lebanon), 4th ed. (Beirut: Dār al-ʿIlm Lil-malāyīn, 1982).Google Scholar

16 Ibid.

17 Ibid., 11–12.

18 “[T]he Government shall respect all creeds and safeguard and protect the free exercise of all forms of worship, on the condition that there is no interference with the public order. It also guarantees that the personal status and religious interests of the peoples, whatever their creed, shall be respected”: El-Gemayel, , The Lebanese Legal System, 1: 24.Google Scholar

19 Bilani, Personal Status Codes, 19.

20 Ibid., 20.

21 For more information, cf. ibid., 41–43.

22 Ibid., 65–66.

23 Ibid.

24 Personal Status Code of the Catholic Church (hereafter PSC [Catholic]), Art. 57 (Q1067); Personal Status Code of the Syriac Orthodox Church (hereafter PSC [Syriac]), Art. 4, 5:1; Personal Status Code of the Evangelical Church (hereafter PSC [Evangelical]), Art. 13:b, 22:g; Personal Status Code of the Armenian Orthodox Church (hereafter PSC [Armenian]), Art. 3:a, 15, 21; Personal Status Code of the Greek Orthodox Church (hereafter PSC [Greek Orthodox]), Art. 5:3, 18:2; Personal Status Code of the Israelite Sect (hereafter PSC [Israelite]), Art. 2, 44, cf. also Art. 45–47; Personal Status Code of the Druze Sect (hereafter PSC [Druze]), Art. 1–6; Personal Status Code of the Sunni Sect (hereafter PSC [Sunni]), Art. 4–6; Personal Status Code of the Jajari Sect (hereafter PSC [Jacfari]), Art. 7–8.

25 PSC (Catholic), Art. 39, 40, 43, 45–47, 58–59, 63:1; PSC (Syriac), Art. 42–45, 48; PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 40, 49, 52; PSC (Israelite), Art. 150, 156–58, 161–64, 171–72, also 127; PSC (Druze), Art. 20–22, 24–25; PSC (Armenian), Art. 79, 90, 92–93; Ottoman Family Law, Art. 80–91.

26 PSC (Catholic), Art. 160, 162; PSC (Syriac), Art. 33; PSC (Evangelical), Art. 31–32; PSC (Armenian), Art. 46–47; PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 28–29; PSC (Israelite), Art. 134. Cf. also Bilani, Personal Status Codes, 113.

27 Ibid., 119.

28 Ibid.

29 PSC (Catholic), Art. 162.

30 Ibid., Art. 163; PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 31.

31 PSC (Armenian), Art. 47.

32 PSC (Evangelical), Art. 33.

33 PSC (Armenian), Art. 48.

34 PSC (Israelite), Art. 134–36,141–43,149, 169,170, 178,183,190,195,206,220–21,226,230–31.

35 Bilani, Personal Status Codes, 68. See also, PSC (Israelite), Art. 101.

36 PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 71.

37 Ibid.

38 PSC (Syriac), Art. 51–52, 56, 60.

39 PSC (Israelite), Art. 249, 251, 260–62, 264, 266, 270, 272, 303, 315–16, 320, 327, 335, 340–41, 352–53, 356, 591–92, 596–97, 602.

40 Ibid.

41 For a good discussion of divorce in Hanafi law, see Esposito, John, Women in Muslim Family Law (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1982).Google Scholar

42 Bilani, , Personal Status Codes, 136–37.Google Scholar

43 Ibid., 130–43.

44 Ottoman Family Law, Art. 119–31.

45 PSC (Druze), Art. 37–49.

46 PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 79; PSC (Syriac), Art. 11:4; PSC (Israelite), Art. 661–62; Ottoman Family Law, Art. 139–49; PSC (Druze), Art. 50–53.

47 PSC (Catholic), Art. 123.

48 PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 100–101; PSC (Syriac), Art. 80–82; PSC (Armenian), Art. 166; PSC (Evangelical), Art. 81–83, 85, 100.

49 Bilani, Personal Status Codes, 155–58; PSC (Greek Orthodox), Art. 64; PSC (Syriac), Art. 61, 63; PSC (Armenian), Art. 130; PSC (Evangelical), Art. 74–76, 79–80.

50 PSC (Israelite), Art. 684, 688, 691–92, 695, 735–36, 738.

51 Bilani, , Personal Status Codes, 154;Google ScholarPSC (Evangelical), Art. 71; PSC (Armenian), Art. 128; PSC (Catholic), Art. 124.

52 For a full discussion, cf. S. Mahmasani, Legal Principles.

53 PSC (Israelite), Art. 416, 451, 453, 465, 471, 473, 497, 499, 515, 518.

54 Since determining the causes of the legal discrimination against women is not within the scope of this paper, no further discussion will be attempted.

55 Art. 5 of decree no. 15 (19 January 1925) and modified by the law decreed on 11 January 1960. Cf. also Moghaizel, Laure, al-marʾa fī al-tashrīʿ al-lubnāni (Women in the Lebanese Legislation) (Beirut: Institute for Women's Studies in the Arab World, 1985), 74–76.Google Scholar

56 Ibid.

57 Art. 7 of decree no. 15 and modified by the law of 1 November 1960; Art. 5 of the law of 1 November 1960.

58 Legislative decree no. 94/83 as of 11 April 1983, Art. 6, para, d; Art. 43, para. 2.

59 Legislative decree no. 47/83.

60 Ibid., Art. 46.

61 Decree no. 3950–Compensations and Benefits–issued on 27 April 1960 and modified by decree no. 1602, issued on 27 December 1978, Art. 6

62 Decree no. 3950. Art. 48, and the Law of Benefits and Services, Art. 10, as modified by ruling no. 491, 14 July 1970.

63 Law of of Indemnity, no. 9, issued on 8 April 1965 by the Social Security Fund, Art. 24.

64 Social Security, Art. 16, para. 2.

65 In a public debate, the Minister of Environment conceded that female engineers paid lower salaries were a “good bargain,” since they tend to be the secondary breadwinners.

66 Law of Obligations and Contracts, Art. 995–97.

67 Commercial Law, Art. 625, para. 1, 2, 626.

68 Penal Code, Art. 250–51, 253, 562.

69 Penal Code, Art. 488; ibid., Art. 487, para. 1; ibid., Art. 488, para. 1; ibid., Art. 487, para. 2; ibid., Art. 487, last para.; and ibid., Art. 489, last para.

70 Ibid., part 7, chap. 3.

71 Ibid., Art. 542, para. 2; ibid., Art. 545; ibid., Art. 39, 251.

72 Pateman, Carole, The Sexual Contract (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1988), 6.Google Scholar

73 Cited in ibid., 119.

74 Mill, John Stuart, “The Subjection of Women,”in Essays on Sex Equality, ed. Rossi, A. S. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), 130.Google Scholar

75 Cited by Rossi, in Essays on Sex Equality, 45–46,Google Scholar and Pateman, , Sexual Contract, 161.Google Scholar

76 Ibid., 228–29.

77 Cited by Pateman, , Sexual Contract, 119.Google Scholar

78 Cf. ibid., 116; Nicholas, et al. , Rights and Wrongs, 30.Google Scholar

79 Penal Code, Art. 503–4.

80 For a discussion of rape in Western culture, cfHerman, Diane F., ”The Rape Culture,” in Women: A Feminist Perspective, 4th ed., ed. Freeman, Jo (Mountain View, Calif.: Mayfield Publishing Co., 1989);Google Scholar Carole J. Shefield, “Sexual Terrorism,” in ibid. The issue of the control over women's bodies was discussed at length during the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994: cf. DrHassan's, Rifaat commentary on the subject in The Nation, 261 (11 November 1995).Google Scholar

81 Cited by Pateman, , Sexual Contract, 158.Google Scholar

82 Hobbes, Thomas, Leviathan (New York: Penguin, 1977),Google Scholar part II, chap. 20, 253. See also Pateman, , Sexual Contract, 12.Google Scholar