window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-GEQWY429QJ');

 

Lebanon law lets rapists go free if they marry their victims, Entity reports.

Lebanese activists are pushing for parliament to repeal controversial article 522.

The abhorrent rape law nixes any punishment for rapists who marry their victims. The vote to repeal the widely criticized – and rightly so – law is May 15.

Ahead of the vote, Lebanese sculptor Mireille Honeïn installed 31 paper dresses hung by nooses along Beirut’s coastline. “This Article 522 is from the stone age. It’s not acceptable for people to talk about it anymore. How is it reasonable for a woman to be raped and then sold into a prison?” Jean Oghassabian, Lebanon’s minister for women’s affair said to Agence France Presse.

There are 31 dresses because there are 31 days in a month, and a woman could be raped and then subsequently forced to marry her rapist any one of those days. When that happens, an unmarried woman is typically made to marry her rapist in order to “preserve the family’s honor.”

This is horribly traumatic, and these men don’t often make for good husbands, as one can imagine. For example, in 2012 Amina Filali – who was only 16 – was forced to marry her rapist, who went on to beat her. Shortly thereafter she killed herself.

Rothna Begum of Human Rights Watch makes the great argument that protecting women’s honor shouldn’t be about selling them off to the men that hurt them. “Protecting honor should be about ensuring that attackers are punished and promoting social attitudes that support survivors of sexual violence instead of stigmatizing them.” Preach!

France, Peru, Costa Rica and Uruguay all used to have similar laws. But they have since been repealed. And Lebanon’s prime minister has previously tweeted, “I applaud the Administration and Justice Committee’s cancelation of Article 522 that exempts a rapist from penalties if he marries his victim. We now await the completion of this civilized step for the upcoming legislative session.” 

Fingers crossed someone will do the right thing on May 15.

Send this to a friend