Gender Equity bulletin, Issue 1, September 2014

About the newsletter

Why the Gender Equity Newsletter?
This newsletter aims to connect gender actors and practitioners in Lebanon through the exchange expertise, in an attempt to create a space for better collaboration, networking, and equal access to knowledge, research, and information. Each issue will cover the work of actors, their activities, and projects, in addition to recommending relevant resources and tools, as well as information and statistics relevant to gender work in Lebanon.

The concept of “hypersexualization” is polysemic^[1] and could be associated with various connotations, discourses, and practices. While some understand it as related to nudity or sexual practices (whether considered legally or socially premature or “deviant,”^[2] i.e., non-compliant with social and moral norms), others tend to locate it within the spheres of the sexual objectification of the person, through pornography, bodily esthetics (such as “sexy” outfits v/s hijab), plastic surgery, tattoos, body building, and so on.

For the purpose of this article, “hypersexualization” will be defined as the “[hyper]sexualized” staging of the body in the public space. However, it is important to look at the context of such staging and how the culture of patriarchy and sexism – mixed with aggressive liberal consumerism and sensationalism – provide the stage for hypersexualization.

As Suad Joseph points out, “the reality that the modern 'nation-state' has mandated a masculine citizen,”^[3] where women and mothers are referred to as “icons of the nation” and men are generally perceived as “with the state”,^[4] tends to perpetuate an existing power relation, that of a ruler and ruled, a nation that is actually “ruled” by the state. The family constitutes a core social institution – laws, moral values, and social practices being structured consequently.

In that sense, families are constructed along such power setup through patrilineal^[5] kin groups, where women are seen through the patriarchal lenses of both the “state” and the “family” as properties of men and patriarchal families.^[6] While this has led many of the legal frameworks adopted by states (mostly via public pressure) to partially assume the role of “protector” of women, or more specifically “mothers”, it contributes to exacerbating their objectification and “hypersexualization,” by contrast.

Family laws, communitarian personal status laws, and religious courts decisions – which regulate marriage, age of marriage, divorce, child custody and inheritance – reinforce the idea that women are “ruled” by men. The absence of civil marriage and personal status laws adopting equality and justice for women encourages religious endogamy.^[7] In other words, this enforced on women whom and how they should marry.^[8] Against this backdrop, women’s sexuality and sexual role have always been viewed as derived from men’s sexuality, with tailor-made laws and structures protecting these power relations – a role focused on “reproduction” and where the will and pleasure of women are completely derived from those of men, notably through marriage. Sexual intercourse outside marriage is considered adultery, where women legally suffer far more punishment than men.

“A woman can be sentenced to two years in prison if a third party accuses her of cheating on her husband, whereas a man has to be caught red-handed before being hauled to court...If a man admits to adultery but apologizes, he is usually pardoned. The same does not apply to a woman.”^[9]

Moreover, the Lebanese Penal Code continues to criminalize women’s sexualities; for example, Article 522 declares that the state will not prosecute a rapist, in the event that he marries his victim.^[10] Additionally, the sanctioning of marital rape, packaged under “marital rights” in the recent passing of a mutilated VAW Law back in winter 2014, is a sober confirmation of this trend.

On the other hand, the privilege of blood in citizenship regulations, the masculinization of lineage, and the valuing of patrilineality over matrilineality upholds the definition of women as second class citizens (such as in the citizenship law).^[11] 

This exclusionary and violent setup of society, with respect to women, and their sexual staging within such relations of power is further corroborated by an aggressive liberal consumerist approach. Highly intensified by the neo-liberal market economy, the “hypersexualization” of women's bodies and their being has been adopted quite vividly by political parties^[12] and the media. This occurs in tandem with increased recourse to and promotion of plastic surgery,^[13] including hymenoplasty, the early sexualization of children through access to “beauty products,”^[14] and the constant framing of women’s beauty and sexuality through both “unrealistic” esthetic forms and submissive behaviors, pervasive in advertisements, films, tv shows, and so on.

The phrase “sex sells,” utilized by various production agencies to state an economic fact of the market, is a perfect illustration of such staged sexualization of the body. In the vast majority of cases, it is the female body that is staged and used as means of “selling sex.”

Early marriage in times of “crisis” (with regard to Syrian refugees for example), is a perfect illustration of such sexualized violence towards young women and girls, guised under a cover of “protection,” which equally feeds on the conservative legal structure and cultural norms. It exemplifies the constant drive towards the commodification and commercialization of women within a neoliberal economy, where social and economic protection has a price and the biggest share is paid by women, economically, socially, psychologically, and through their bodies.

Hypersexualization, in this case, is yet another form of violent sexism, which perpetuates existing stereotypes and oppressive structures related to sex, sexuality, and gender roles. However, it is also accompanied by the stigmatization of anything that does not correspond to what is generally accepted – by law and in social practice – as mainstream heteronormative male sexuality.

Article 534 of the penal code – criminalizing “sexual intercourse contrary to nature” – is another illustration of the state's identification of 'deviant' and 'unnatural' sexuality. Its application, however, has followed various patterns and has been invariably incorporated in moral panics about 'deviant communities' in Lebanon (including but not limited to devil worship, drug use, heavy metal music, EMOs, etc.). Attempts to further delegitimize same-sex and non-conformist sexualities took a more serious turn in the early 2000s, attributed by some defenders to the restructuring of the security and protection role of the state to conform with the requisites of the war against terror.^[15]

One recent example involved the arrest of 27 men in Agha hammam in August 2014,^[16] in the midst of relatively wide civil society condemnation of "virginity" tests against men suspected of having sex with other men. Although the tests were supposedly prohibited by the Minister of Justice in 2012 and censured by the Order of Doctors in Lebanon, recent reports have maintained that they continued to take place,^[17] indicating the weakness of civil procedure compared to deeply entrenched dictum.

Moreover such acts of criminalization of “unnatural sexuality” whether in the case of women or LGBTQ communities is usually accompanied by aggressively sensationalized reporting styles adopted by Lebanese media, which reinforce the 'criminality' of such human practices and frame sensuality as a moral and deviant threat to society and social order.

In such context, it becomes important to question and to open the debate on how this setup of hypersexualization and sexism can be confronted, both in the short and strategic terms. How can sexuality be set free from these oppressive and exploitative legal, social and economic structures?

--

Lebanon Support, September 2014.

Featured paper: Gender politics in Lebanon and the limits of legal reformism

By: Riwa Salameh | September 16, 2014
This paper examines the status of women in Lebanon in terms of their participation in politics and decision-making processes as well as their socio-economic conditions, and it offers a review of some the recent strategies adopted to enhance women’s status in Lebanon while highlighting their limits in the particular Lebanese socio-political context. Read more.

New feature available on the Civil Society Knowledge Centre (CSKC)

The Gender Equity Information & Research Network is now online.
The Gender Collaborative Information and Knowledge Network is an online collaborative platform. It is part of Lebanon Support’s Civil Society Knowledge Center (CSKC) and brings together civil society organizations, researchers, practitioners, and experts to enhance local and national capacities, improve access to knowledge and its development, and provide evidence-based research, information, and literature on gender issues and concerns. Access it here.

Featured resources:

Shifting Sands Changing Gender Roles Among Refugees in Lebanon (2013)
Publisher(s): Oxfam
The Syrian conflict has resulted in approximately a million people fleeing to Lebanon – equivalent to nearly 25 per cent of the Lebanese population of 4.2 million. Despite the efforts of the Lebanese authorities, generous Lebanese citizens, UN agencies, and international and national aid organizations, this overwhelming influx of refugees has created intense stresses, as refugees find themselves having to take on new roles and responsibilities that are often at odds with their traditional gendered social roles. Read more

In Focus: KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation

Established in 2005 by a group of multidisciplinary professionals and human rights activists, KAFA (enough) Violence & Exploitation is a Lebanese non-profit, non-political, non-confessional civil society organization committed to the achievement of gender-equality and non-discrimination, and the advancement of the human rights of women and children.

KAFA’s mission is to work towards eradicating all forms of gender-based violence and exploitation of women and children through advocating for legal reform and change of policies and practices, influencing public opinion, and empowering women and children. Their focus areas are those of: 1) Gender-based and Family Violence; 2) Child Sexual Abuse; 3) Exploitation and Trafficking of Women; and 4) Socio-legal Counseling and Empowerment of Victims of Violence.

Since its establishment, KAFA set up a listening and advice center in order to provide social, psychological and legal services for women victims of violence, especially domestic violence. Through the continuous work in the center and the deep knowledge of the conditions of women who are subjected to violence and their needs, the organization has been able to launch a draft law to protect women from domestic violence in 2007, with the help of legal experts. The law wasn’t approved by Parliament till 2014, seven years after it was initially launched. However, the version of the law that passed was distorted and warped, and the organization is currently working on amending it and on developing the capacity of the police to handle cases of domestic violence.

KAFA also has units dealing with issues of child sexual abuse, implementing several programs and publishing relevant resources. In addition to this, a unit deals with women trafficking, which includes migrant domestic workers and women in prostitution, providing legal advice and psychosocial services to women migrant workers subjected to exploitation and violence.

Strategy and approaches

Since its establishment, KAFA adopted a strategy of advocacy and promoting the modification or development of laws that will provide protection for women and children. Concurrently with working with decision-makers, KAFA adopts a grassroots approach and works with the concerned population, in order to bring about change at a ground level and create popular support for the issues involved.

KAFA considers that equality is not achieved by the adoption of laws alone, but through practically and effectively applying this equality on all levels. For the organization, achieving equality is a complete process that starts with the participation of women in policy formulation and decision making, ensuring equal opportunities, in addition to removing obstacles that come in the way of effective equality. Additionally, KAFA looks at the issue through a feminist lens, and as such, addresses the power structures and dynamics in social and political spheres.

Challenges

There are several, like the patriarchal structures, such as the personal status law, that discriminate institutionally against women, and impede on the protection of women obstructing their access to justice. Additionally, there is no feminist agenda capable of imposing itself in the social and political landscape. Furthermore, achieving change within tense political and security circumstances is difficult, not to mention the aversion to change of our decision-makers and their attachment to the patriarchal system.

To know more about KAFA:

Check out their website following this link,
and their Daleel Madani profile following this link.

Partners’ activities/updates

4 September 2014
ABAAD: Information meeting with families and wives/mothers of the disappeared 
7 September 2014
LebMASH: World Bank Meetings 
8 September 2014
RDFL: وقفة تضامنية رفضاً لمختلف أشكال الإرهاب التي تهدد النساءKAFA: Training of trainers on the manual "Hand in Hand to End VAW"KAFA: Launch of study "Dreams for Sale: Exploitation of Domestic Workers from Recruitment in Nepal and Bangladesh to Working in Lebanon" 
10 September 2014
LebMASH: Sponsoring of medical student to attend medical conferenceLebMASH: GLMA annual meetingKAFA: Training of trainers on the manual "Hand in Hand to End VAW" 
11 September 2014
LebMASH annual general meetingABAAD: Launch of project "Clarifying the fate of the missing and disappeared in Lebanon" 
12 September 2014
ABAAD: Information meeting with families and wives/mothers of the disappeared 
13 September 2014
RDFL: إنتخابات الهيئة الإدارية في التجمعABAAD: Gender Based Violence Case Management in Emergencies (GBV CMiE)ABAAD: Clinical Management of Survivors of Sexual Assault (CMR) 
14 September 2014
KAFA: Training on the "Citadel of Protection" toolkit on GBV in emergencies 
15 September 2014
KAFA: Launch of study on prostitution in Lebanon and a new campaign against trafficking women for sexual exploitation 
16 September 2014
RDFL: ورشة تدربية لمدة يوم واحد لمحامين ومحاميات حول اتفاقية السيداو 
18 September 2014
RDFL: ورشة تدربية لمدة يومين بموضوع مشاركة المراة بالحياة العامة

- Recent sad cases of Gender-Based Violence, Nawar El Khaled is killed by her uncle on August 20th 2014. Bassel Khalaf is arrested by police on the 11th of September for allegedly murdering his wife Salam Mohammad.

- In a context where child marriages are increasingly occurring and supported by religious authorities, Lebanon is preparing a law that would make child marriage more difficult to take place.

- AUB creates a new position, Tilte IX Coordinator, to address allegations of gender-based discrimination or harassment at AUB and AUBMC, and provide assistance and advice.

Around the world

- In Tunisia, following the declaration of a new progressive constitution, the Constituent  Assembly began drafting an anti-VAW law that would protect women from all kinds of gender-based violence in compliance with the CEDAW (Convention to Eliminate All Forms of Discrimination Against Women).

- In the aftermath of the violent militarized police response to protests following the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18 year-old, in Ferguson, Missouri (USA), some articles pointed out that black women’s experiences of racial state violence are being erased and marginalized, their struggles overlooked and that “black people becomes black men by default”.

- While Ireland is getting ready for its marriage equality referendum set to take place in 2015, and with current polls showing a large majority in favor of same-sex marriage, Irish group LGBT Noise released a funny PSA to get more straight people involved as allies for marriage equality  and encourage them to vote.

*The Gender Equity Newsletter is published by Lebanon Support with support from Diakonia and the Swedish development cooperation. The views expressed in this newsletter are solely those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Lebanon Support, Diakonia or the Swedish development cooperation.

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