The abolishment of the Lebanese marriage loophole – article 522. A qualitative social movement study that analyses and explores Lebanese women’s movement advocacy towards legislative changes and social change related to gender equality

Abstract

In Lebanon, women have a long history of organizing and working towards equal legislation for all, just as in other countries around the world. After several rounds of advocacy by actors from the Lebanese women's movement, the gender-discriminating article 522 from the penal code was abolished in the year 2017. Before its abolished from the Lebanese penal code, article 522 would allow a person who has committed rape, abduction or statutory rape to be free from prosecution or suspended from conviction if he married the girl or woman. At the same time as Article 522 was abolished in 2017, the marriage loophole was re-embedded under article 505, which includes sex with a 15-year-old minor, as well as article 518, which deals with the seduction of a minor with the promise of marriage (BBC, 2017). However, many considered the initial abolition as an essential first step towards gender equal legislation in the Lebanese context. This study aims at understanding how actors from Lebanese women’s movement advocate for legislative changes by analysing their process of abolishing article 522. To achieve this understanding, social movement theory has been applied to analyse stories that were collected through semi-structured interviews with seven female informants from the Lebanese women’s rights NGO’s ABAAD, KAFA, LECORVAW and LCW. The study showed that the actors involved shared different opinions on how the problem with article 522 should be framed and that the overall process had been far from linear, as the Lebanese women’s movement encountered many threats and obstacles. The delay of the Lebanese government and the sectarian interference with the implementation of gender equality legislation are a few examples.