Recently I had the opportunity to specifically examine how women are treated under Lebanese law. Here is what I found (my friend translated for me):
Criminal Code
-Woman as Perpetrator:
*If a woman has an abortion, she faces six months to three years in prison.
*Adultery: If a married woman commits adultery, she faces three months to two years in prison. (The partner of the married woman faces the same penalty.) But if a married man commits adultery, he faces one month to one year in jail. (The partner of a married man gets the same penalty.) Additionally, it is easier to prove that a woman committed adultery, and she can be convicted for adultery committed in or outside her home. A man, on the other hand, can only be convicted if the adultery occurred in his home or if the affair is common knowledge.
-Woman as Victim:
*Honor Crimes against Women: The penalty for killing someone is usually 15 to 20 years in prison. When a killing is done as an honor crime, the penalty is six months to five years in prison. To qualify as an honor crime, either the defendant must be a husband, brother, uncle, male ancestor, or male descendant of the victim, or the victim must be the male involved in a “dishonorable” act with the defendant’s female relative.
*Defense of Marriage: Article 522 provides that a rapist, seducer, or kidnapper who marries his victim will not be punished for his crime.
-Absence of Legal Protection:
*There is no marital rape law. In fact, Article 503 of the Penal Code, the provision concerning rape, expressly exempts people whose purported victim is his or her spouse.
*There is no domestic violence law.
Employment
-Article 7 excludes domestic and agricultural workers. (A large percentage of this workforce is female, so the exclusion has a disparate impact on women.)
-Parts of the Labor Code regulate female employees like youth workers.
-Women cannot be judges in any religious court but the Anglican Court.
Family Law/Personal Status
-Discrimination Based on Differences between the Sects (religions) *Ability to get a Divorce: For some women, the ability to get a divorce is nonexistent or greatly restricted because of her religion.
*Muslim women who divorce have a waiting period before they can remarry (the waiting period also applies when her husband dies). Muslim men do not have a waiting period before they can remarry after divorce.
*Marrying Outside of One’s Religion: In Lebanon, it is very difficult for a woman to marry outside of her religion. The Christian religions require non-Christians to convert to marry in their churches. The Muslim religions allow Muslim men to marry non-Muslim women, but Muslim women are prohibited from marrying non-Muslim men. It should be noted though that the Lebanese civil authority would recognize an interfaith marriage that occurred outside of Lebanon.
-In Lebanon, children have the religion of their father—a mother cannot pass her religion on to her children.
-Age of Consent to Marry: Females are generally allowed to marry at an earlier age than males. -Child Custody: A woman’s ability to have custody of her children depends on her religion. Most religions grant mothers custody until the children turn a certain age and this age differs depending on religion.
Inheritance
-Inheritance when there is not a will (intestate succession) is a very complicated issue in Lebanon. Generally though for Muslims, men inherit a greater amount than women. Christians tend to inherit equally.
Nationality
-A Lebanese woman cannot pass her nationality on to her husband and children. The children of a Lebanese man are Lebanese citizens. The foreign wife of a Lebanese man can become Lebanese one year after she registers her marriage with the State.
Other
-Woman as Witness: In Muslim religious courts, the testimony of two women is equal to the testimony of one man.
Social Security and Pension Rights
-A woman cannot provide social security benefits for her unemployed husband unless she proves that he is incapacitated. (An unemployed man whose wife is working can get social security if he is 60 or if he has a disability that prevents him from working.) A man, however, can provide social security benefits for his unemployed wife.
-If a Muslim man has multiple wives, only his first wife can receive social security. The second wife can receive social security if the first wife starts receiving her own social security, dies, or divorces her husband.
-Pensions:
*A widow who is receiving her deceased husband’s pension would no longer receive benefits if she remarried. A widower who is receiving his deceased wife’s pension continues to receive benefits if he remarries.
*If a man has multiple wives, they benefit from his pension equally.
