BEIRUT: Lebanese students wave the national flag during a demonstration in the capital Beirut yesterday as protesters keep up their three-week-long movement against a political class regarded as incompetent and corrupt. - AFP

BEIRUT: Marching
along with hundreds of other women in Lebanon's capital, 41-year-old Sahar says
she had twice the reasons to join in the nation's mass anti-system protests
than any man. "As women, we're doubly oppressed," she said
passionately, while around her hundreds waved Lebanese flags and chanted
against the patriarchy. Women have been at the forefront of Lebanon's mass
street movement since October 17 demanding an overhaul of a political system
seen as incompetent and corrupt.

Like their male
counterparts, they have denounced their inability to alleviate a raft of woes
from a deteriorating economy to unclean water and endless power cuts. But in a
country viewed as one of the most liberal in the region, they are also crying
out against discriminatory laws and religious courts governing their lives.
"On top of everything we suffer as Lebanese people, there's a whole bunch
of laws that are unfair for women," said Sahar, bouncing on her toes in a
green T-shirt and jeans.

In a country
where 37 women have died from domestic violence since the start of 2018, female
protesters are demanding better prevention and application of a 2014 law to
punish battery. Instead of what they see as antiquated religious courts, they
want a national law for all Lebanese-whatever their sect-to grant civil
marriage, and rule on issues of divorce and child custody. They ask for the
amendment of a century-old law governing citizenship that does not allow
Lebanese women to pass down their nationality to their children.

Custody battles

During a women's
march on Sunday, protesters held up a long banner inscribed in red paint with
the words: "Our revolution is feminist". "I can't get my
mother's nationality, but I can defend her revolution," read another sign,
referring to the 1925 law that deprives children of Lebanese women from their
rights as citizens. Zoya Jureidini Rouhana, head of a the Kafa non-governmental
organization, explained the challenges ahead in the tiny multi-confessional
country.

"There is no
single law for personal status but different legislation for each court from 15
different religious sects in Lebanon," she said. Among the most
contentious issues is child custody, with religious authorities for each community
applying a different limit to a divorced mother's custody. In the Catholic
church, children in theory must be handed over after the end to breastfeeding
or at around two years of age, but a court decides in the interest of a child.

For Greek Orthodox
Christians, a mother loses permanent care of the child when they reach 14 years
old for boys and 15 for girls. After widespread pushback, Sunni Muslim
divorcees have been granted full custody until their children turn 12. But in
the Shiite community, children are whisked away to live with their fathers when
they turn two for boys and seven for girls. Similar differences also apply on
matters of inheritance, as well as in setting the minimum age to wed, with no
national law to ban unions under the age of 18.

'Part of the
revolution'

Rim, a
24-year-old student, said she has been taking to the streets since October 17 -
for cleaner water, fewer power cuts and an end to perceived state graft.
"As a young Lebanese woman, I demand a secular system and for religious
courts to be abolished," she said. Women have been at the forefront of the
protests since they started last month, sparked by a proposed tax on phone
calls via free applications like WhatsApp before blowing up into general rage
against the system.

In the movement's
first few days, a woman who kicked an armed ministerial bodyguard in the groin
became a symbol of the growing protests. In recent days, female high school and
university students have eagerly spoken to local television stations to ask for
politicians to stop wasting their future. Women have taken to Beirut's main
square after dark holding candles and banging pots and pans, in a clamoring
racket that echoed around the capital's homes.

Debate around
women's rights has gained momentum in recent years, but activists says much
remains to be done. In 2014, parliament passed a law to punish domestic
violence, but rights advocates have demanded it be reformed to accelerate
trials and increase sentences. Among the protesters, Roba, 33, a lawyer, said
women's rights were crucial for radical change. "Women's issues are an
integral part of the revolution," she said. "Any revolution that
doesn't address women's issues is wanting."

Lebanon's grand
mufti

Meanwhile,
Lebanon's grand mufti, the top cleric for Sunni Muslims, called yesterday for
the formation of a new emergency government of technical experts and for those
in power to meet protesters' demands. The country is in political and economic
turmoil after three weeks of nationwide protests that prompted Prime Minister
Saad al-Hariri to resign last week.

"The time
has come to meet the people's demands and the national free will that
transcends sects, political parties, and regions," Grand Mufti Sheikh
Abdul Latif Derian said in a televised address on the occasion of Prophet
Mohammed's birthday. "The time has come and is opportune, after this
national wake-up call, for the reform process to begin and for those in power
to form an emergency government made up of competent people, without delay,"
Derian said. It is time "to immediately proceed with carrying out the
reform package prepared by Prime Minister Hariri to solve the country's
problems", he added.

Maronite
Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai, Lebanon's top Christian religious authority,
has also called for a change in government to include qualified technocrats.
Before he stepped down, Hariri agreed a package of reforms with partners in the
coalition government aimed at easing an economic crisis that sparked the
unprecedented protests against the sectarian ruling elite. The plans included a
50% reduction in the salaries of current and former officials and $3.3 billion
in contributions from banks to achieve a "near zero deficit" for the
2020 budget.

But Lebanese
politicians have yet to make progress towards agreeing a new government to
replace one that was toppled. The country's power-sharing system is based on 18
recognized religious sects and dates back to French colonial rule. It allocates
posts for each of the country's communities, forming the basis of its major
political parties and creating a delicate balance between Christians, Sunni and
Shiite Muslims and other groups. - Agencies