The following article won the first prize in the GBV Article-Writing Contest among Lebanese University Students - Faculty of Journalism and Documentation, organized by the UNFPA Lebanon. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNFPA.

Name: Reine Ibrahim
Major: Masters' Degree - Faculty of Journalism and Documentation

She stood there dumbfounded trying to grasp the cold and strange behavior of this visitor who only resembled her husband in outward appearance. But moments later, she regained her composure, and kept telling herself that her husband was still tired from the plane ride and the hardships of working abroad. However, she could not remain silent towards his aversion and disaffection, so she decided to confront him about his strange behavior, but he only told her that he was not feeling well and provided no other explanations.

Half a month had passed. One day, in the middle of the night, while she was sound asleep, he viciously attacked her like a mad man. As soon as he was done, he left her bleeding, twisting on the floor and wailing from pain as he watched her without lifting a finger. An hour later, he decided to take her to see his friend, the doctor, who refused to examine her and was content with prescribing medications to stop the bleeding which stopped after three days. As the wife's pain subsided within seven days, her mental anguish never deserted her, and she became a woman who felt disgusted with herself and her body. Her husband whose return she anxiously awaited not only raped her body but her soul as well. He did not beat her, he destroyed her. She did not reject him and she did not refuse him his rights as a husband, so why did he behave in such a violent and cruel manner?

The wife, whose dream of reuniting with her expatriate husband transformed into a nightmare that violated her body and soul. She is not a female lead in a movie or a drama series; she is a real victim of gender-based violence.

To avoid being raped twice, first by her husband and second by the laws and legislations in place, she chose to share her bitter testimony on the stage of Babel Theater, Hamra, in a symbolic court trial on marital rape crimes, alongside three other women who were victims of marital rape. All four women ended their testimony with a call for the Parliament to stop distorting the draft law on the “Protection of Women from Family Violence" and abrogating the marital rape crime.

This symbolic court trial came as a response to the Parliamentarian Sub-Committee in charge of studying the draft law, which announced through its Chairman MP Samir el-Jisr on 2/8/2012 having introduced some amendments to the draft law, and exerting great effort to draft a law that actively protects women from any violence within the family and at the same time takes into consideration community values to safeguard families without neglecting individual rights. The Committee also denied the existence of marital rape, repealed the relevant article in the draft law, as well as the clause on filing a complaint by way of notification.

As soon as the Committee submitted the final draft of the law, the voices of non-governmental organizations rose high against the amendments that they believed were distorting the law. As part of these NGOs, the National Coalition for Legalizing the Protection of Women from Family Violence sent a letter to the Parliamentary Sub-Committee assigned to study the draft law on "the Protection of Women from Family Violence", in which it urged the Sub-Committee to reconsider the amended articles which would empty the law of its content. This letter refuted with legal arguments and proofs the most dangerous amendments made to the draft law, such as the articles related to marital rape, the protection order, and the issue of custody, as well as article 26 on the provisions of the Personal Status Courts. For instance, article (3) was amended as follows:
"Any person, who for the purpose of asserting his marital rights or as a result thereof, abuses and assaults a spouse, shall be punished with one of the sanctions stated in articles (554) to (559) of the Penal Code. In case of recidivism, a heavier penalty shall be imposed in accordance with the provisions of article (257) of the Penal Code. Renunciation by the complainant shall extinguish the public prosecution and the provisions of articles (554) and (555) of the Penal Code shall apply".

The National Coalition for Legalizing the Protection of Women from Family Violence considered that "such a text is unnecessary given that the Penal Code provides for the criminalization of abuse and assault and does not stipulate as a condition to demonstrate the reason that led to the act of abuse and assault. Under the current Penal Code, the victim of abuse and assault during intercourse can file a complaint for battery as per the provisions of article (554) ff. in the Penal Code".

According to the Coalition, "What's required is criminalizing the violation of the sanctity of a woman's body but the proposed text does not criminalize it, i.e. the act of coercion itself. The text, as stated, is an attempt to circumvent the law. If the Committee is convinced that sexual coercion is not permissible, even through threats which are a form of mental abuse, why not seek to criminalize it directly instead of attempting to circumvent the law by way of criminalizing what was criminalized to begin with?"

Furthermore, it is dangerous to ratify this draft law without abrogating article (26) which gives precedence to Personal Status provisions, in the event of a contradiction between said provisions and the provisions of the Draft Law for the Protection of Women from Family Violence. In accordance with this article, Family courts shall have the prerogative to pronounce the act as violent or not, and hence if it is punishable or not by virtue of this law.

Amidst this great divide between NGOs working on women's rights and the legislations and laws knitted with the wool of patriarchy, women victims of marital rape are still facing two major worries: the first concerns the husband who is only human in form, and the second concerns the fragility of the laws which destroy the family instead of seeking to safeguard it! When women, wives and mothers are victims of abuse, the family becomes at risk of dissolution.

The four victims of rape, who shared their adversities on the stage of Babel Theater with the hope of sensitizing politicians and legislators, are not alone in this plight. They are only a sample mirroring every woman who was ever destroyed by violence and alienation until she was filled with despair and lost the will to continue to live a married life. A woman who becomes frail like a fall leaf barely leaning on the tree branch, not knowing when her husband's rage would suddenly turn into a way to prove the moral masculinity that he fundamentally lacks, and is left to fall to her impending doom.

In conclusion, I say to all those who reject the term "marital rape", call it as you wish! Call it coercion, call it abuse, call it asserting marital rights, the act still exists and it is rape and it is the most heinous crime committed against women. Will women, with the support of NGOs working in this regard, finally have a draft law free of societal stereotypes and religious misconceptions that constitutes a lifeline for victims of marital rape?