BEIRUT: Hundreds of students and activists, many from the American University of Beirut, marched Sunday from the university campus to the Interior Ministry to demand that Lebanon institute civil marriage.
Protesters held banners targeting Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk, who had been fiercely criticized for refusing to approve civil marriage contracts performed in Lebanon.
A big white banner carried at the head of the march read: “Release the civil marriage documents. Here.. Now.”
Standing in front the Interior Ministry near the Sanayeh park, protesters shouted slogans calling for secularism and civil rights.
The protest, which attracted activists from all ages and groups, was called for by several civil society organizations and two clubs at AUB, the Secular Club and the communist Red Oath Club.
The Interior Ministry had issued a statement last month saying that the 1936 law that legalizes civil marriage also stipulates the need for an official process regulating the practice. This process must be decreed by the Cabinet before the law can be implemented, the statement said.
However, activists claim that the law is enough for marriages to be issued, citing the already approved marriage of Nidal Darwish and Khouloud Sukkarieh.
Last year, the High Committee for Consultations in the Justice Ministry approved Darwish and Succariyeh’s civil marriage in the country, which took place after the couple removed their sects from their official documents.
The move prompted a number of couples to follow suit and there are currently roughly 60 couples who have opted to perform their civil ceremonies in Lebanon, according to activists.
Machnouk was also slammed Sunday for changing his position on civil marriage since 2013.
He had announced his support for optional civil marriage in Lebanon in 2013 Facebook post, after Future Movement leader Saad Hariri had backed Darwish and Succariyeh’s move.
However, in an interview with LBCI’s Marcel Ghanem in January, Machnouk said that “Cyprus is not far,” implying that couples insisting on civil marriage can visit the nearby island and have it done there.
Generally, Lebanese couples wishing to have a civil marriage travel to places such as Cyprus or Turkey. While the Lebanese state fully recognizes civil unions preformed outside Lebanon, those done within Lebanon remain problematic.
A protester in Sunday’s march carried a printed out Machnouk’s initial pro-civil marriage Facebook post on a sign, with writing under it asking: “Are you a hypocrite?”
Several pro-civil marriage legal experts and former interior ministers have argued that Machnouk’s stand on the matter contradicts the law.
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