Conflict Incident Report

BEIRUT: Activists rallied in Beirut's Ain al-Mreisseh to press authorities to scrap a controversial Penal Code Article 522 that allowed for rapists to escape prosecution by marrying their victims.

A draft law to abolish Article 522 was sent to Parliament in February for ratification after the Parliament’s Administration and Justice Committee agreed to scrap the article on Dec. 8, 2016.

The draft law is expected to be included on the Parliament's agenda for the next session set for May 15.

Activists urged Lebanese citizens to sign a petition to ramp up the pressure on legislators at an open-air exhibit.

Thirty-one wedding dresses made of white lace and wrapping paper hung limply from makeshift nooses between four palm trees along Beirut's Corniche.

"There are 31 days in a month and every single day, a woman may be raped and forced to marry her rapist," said Alia Awada, advocacy manager at Lebanese non-government organisation ABAAD.

"We are trying as much as we can to shed light on this issue and tell Parliament that the time has come for them to vote on cancelling Article 522."

The reviled article, which also deals with the rape of minors, allows offenders to escape punishment by wedding their victims.

"If a valid marriage contract exists between the perpetrator of one of these crimes ... and the abused, the prosecution is suspended," it reads.

"If a verdict has been issued, the implementation is suspended."

Awada said: "We called on all parliamentarians and decision-makers in the Lebanese state with this message: every 'yes' from you is a 'no' to a rapist."

- 'Stone age' -

Standing amid the fluttering wedding dresses, Minister for Women's Affairs Jean Ogasapian, who joined the activists, described the article as being "from the stone age."

"Its turn has come, it's the second item on the agenda" at an upcoming legislative session on May 15, Ogasapian told AFP.

Lebanese artist Mireille Honein, who designed the exhibition in Paris and brought it to her homeland this week, said she made the dresses out of white paper "to highlight the ephemeral nature of marriage and of laws."

"And I hung them up, because this type of law simply robs women of their essence, leaves them without an identity and suspends them in a life that does not suit them and is shameful for those imposing it on them," Honein told AFP.

As passersby paused to look at the ghostly installation, volunteers from ABAAD invited them to sign a petition demanding parliament prioritize the article's elimination.

Silver-haired Rafiq Ajouri, who hails from a southern Lebanese village, was persuaded to sign on while on his morning stroll along the Corniche.

"If I were to get raped, why wouldn't I get my rights? I'd want people to stand beside me," he said.

But the elderly man, who has five sons and three daughters, hesitated when an ABAAD volunteer said women should be allowed the same liberties as men.

"They can have their freedoms, but within limits. Why? Because they're girls."