Lebanon religious laws violate women's rights: HRW

Lebanese laws and courts governing marriage and child custody "discriminate against women" from all religious groups, often trapping them in abusive unions, a Human Rights Watch report published Jan. 19 said.
      
The small Arab country has a fragile mosaic of Christian and Muslim communities of multiple denominations whose right to oversee their own religious courts is enshrined in the constitution.
      
"Lebanon has 15 separate personal status laws for its recognised religions but no civil code covering issues such as divorce, property rights or care of children," the New York-based group said.
      
"These laws are administered by autonomous religious courts with little or no government oversight, and often issue rulings that violate women's human rights."       

The 114-page report, titled "Unequal and Unprotected: Women's Rights Under Lebanon's Religious Personal Status Laws," interviews women from across Lebanon's sectarian spectrum and analyses hundreds of legal judgements.
      
It says Sunni and Shiite Muslim women have limited access to divorce, while "men... have a unilateral, unlimited right to pronounce a divorce, with or without cause".
      
Neither Christian men nor women are allowed to divorce, but "there are instances that allow men more grounds" for divorce or annulment.
      
Druze women also have limited access to divorce, "while Druze men can obtain a divorce, with or without cause", said the report.
      
All Lebanese women suffer from a lack of protection from domestic violence, as well as financial vulnerability if they do divorce an abusive husband, the group said.
      
In 2014, Lebanon's parliament passed a landmark law on domestic violence.        ...