Valentine’s Day 2009 was a sight to behold in a Beirut bar: several interfaith couples “got married” in mock weddings at the bar in the city’s trendy Gemmayze district to protest against strict intermarriage laws. from the country.
Civil weddings between interfaith couples are only recognized if the marriage does not take place on Lebanese soil. The Valentine’s Day ceremony took place just days after Interior Minister Ziad Baroud declared that citizens can now remove their religious identity from their national identity documents if they so wish.
Many Lebanese bloggers applauded the ID card reform, although others remain skeptical. Although this movement initially only removes the reference to one’s religion, the goal is to eliminate religious law entirely and achieve a civil law that will apply to all citizens, leaving religion as a personal matter. Many young Lebanese feel that even more reforms are needed.
Inside or outside the big 18
In Lebanon you can only belong to the 18 religions recognized by the Lebanese constitution, which means that you are outside if you are Hindu, agnostic or Bahai, and you have no marital status. Many suggest that Minister Baroud’s decree may be a smokescreen because it only removes the “reference” to one’s religion, but religion will still determine who votes and who runs for public office.
Intermarriage: What is the price?
In the fight for civil marriage, there are currently not very pretty realities when it comes to interfaith relations and marriages in Lebanon, especially when it comes to the treatment of women. There is a candid summary of this by a Hanibaal from Lebanon Iznogood on the Global Voices website.
Hanibaal reveals that in Lebanon, the two parties involved in an interfaith marriage are not allowed to maintain their own individual religions; usually a wife has to abandon her religion and convert to her husband’s in order to marry him. Honor killings are still protected by law in Lebanon when it comes to women who have or are alleged to have had affairs.
Religious identification: How deep is it?
In light of such realities, the option of removing religion from your ID cards is truly groundbreaking, but I also find it heartbreaking in its own way, as religion is a critical part of identification for many of us. .
Still, this step in the direction of reform and acceptance may hopefully be the first link in a chain of events that also make civil marriage possible between young Lebanese couples who have crossed the line of faith to be together. .