BEIRUT: Interior Minister Raya El Hassan drew fierce backlash in recent days over her support for establishing civil marriage in Lebanon, reigniting a yearslong debate among those for and against having one civil code to govern personal status matters.
In an interview with Euronews last week, Hassan had said, “I personally prefer if there was a framework for civil marriage, and this is something that ... I will try to open room for a serious and deep discussion on.”
“I know that this topic has a political and sectarian dimension to it, and I have to take this into consideration, but ... I will open this discussion with all religious figures.”
In Lebanon, no civil code exists to regulate personal status issues, such as marriage and divorce.
Rather, such matters are governed by 15 religious laws, overseen by associated courts depending on a person’s religious affiliation.
Many supporters of a civil personal status code have charged that the existence of so many disparate legislation in the current system is at its best complicated, and at its worst discriminatory.
For instance, many Lebanese people have traveled to Cyprus and Turkey to marry under civil laws there. According to a 2015 Human Rights Watch report, those choosing to marry abroad do so “either because they do not want to be subject to the laws of their religion or because they are from different religious backgrounds.”