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The new law change is described as a milestone. Sexual harassment is a criminal offense and the perpetrators can be sentenced to years in prison or heavy fines.
– It’s a very good team that should dissuade, says Danielle Hoyek, a lawyer for the Abaad organization that works with gender equality in the Middle East, to Al Jazeera.
In addition to punishing the perpetrators, the new law protects those who have been exposed and those who testify.
– It also gives some hope during this economic and social crisis that Lebanon is in right now. It shows that we don’t live by the law of the jungle, says Danielle Hoyek.
Violence in close relationships
Another change in the law was achieved that redefines and broadens the definition of violence in close relationships. That law has been in place since 2014, but now it also covers psychological violence and relationships that have ended.
– For example, if you divorce and a man is violent with his ex-wife, it is still considered domestic violence, says MP Inaya Ezzedine.
“Steps in the right direction”
The UN special envoy to Lebanon, Jan Kubis, welcomes the change in the law, which he believes is a “step in the right direction”.
But women’s rights groups still need more. Changes in the law, for example, have not criminalized marital rape and do not cover the hundreds of thousands of foreign women who work in slavery as domestic workers in Lebanon, Al Jazeera writes.
Movies about trouble went viral
That the issue of sexual harassment and violence in close relationships is relevant in Lebanon became clear when artist and artist Rémie Akl posted a film on the subject on social media. In the first two days, the film had received nearly three and a half million views on Instagram alone. In the film, she highlights how men in Lebanon call women “Baklava”, a type of sweet cake, but she thinks their “Baklava” is afraid of them.
See parts of the movie “Baklava has legs” in the clip.
