Dear ‘Most Powerful Man of All’
29
Oct
2015
I am writing to you because you hurt someone I love; a lot of people I love for that matter. I am writing to you on their behalf and on behalf of every woman and child affected by you. Did you know that you took away her “innocence”; that because of what you did, she does not believe in kindness anymore? Stripped away from every ray of hope that could potentially save her soul, she cries: “I live with constant fear that I might become my father one day”. A childhood drenched and soaked in bruises, violence, and dread. Did you know that her mother is carrying the brutality of her valueless existence because of what she takes from you? Their house is not really a home, and they do not feel safe in what is supposed to be the safest place in the world; family. Her two brothers find ways to escape reality, for reality is merely a reminder of the unfair and unjust prison they find themselves trapped in. Constant episodes of a father forcefully claiming his power and ‘manhood’ and a mother repeatedly mumbling: “It is not easy to escape, society won’t let me”. According to recent studies, there are more than 2,600 families with victims of Domestic Violence in Lebanon. Did you know that it is all because of you? Dear ‘Most Powerful Man of All’ and Law 293, where have you been? For years, you have been blinded by the false assumption that ideas derived from cultural history, politics, and religious people of power indicate that domestic violence is okay and so you never took a step to change that. Well, in a society fed by criminals like you, people are finding more tolerance in a sight of a bruised woman than a divorced one, and that in itself is a crime. I can go on all day blaming the mentality of our society, but our understandings only derive from the grotesque architecture of our laws. I blame you and that Parliament backing you. KAFA (enough), the local non-governmental, non-benefit organization established in 2005, has been fighting the discrimination and violence against women and children since then. It started off by initiating awareness on the subject among Lebanese families, offering a tangible approach to this struggle. “We needed to shed light on the matter, present it among our culture and society”, says Leila Awada, the co-founder of KAFA, adding: “It was very essential to have the media approach the malfeasance of such inequality and shed light on it as a current phenomenon.” In 2008, KAFA filed a plea for the parliament to implement a law protecting women and children from domestic violence. Protesters started voicing their demands. Meanwhile, the level of violence in this region remains consistently high, claims Human Rights Watch researcher Rothna Begum. A sad number of victims passed away because of the silence and the lack of legal protection beyond their homes. Not until the year of 2014, did things ‘turn around’. The Parliament adopted a law entitled ‘Protecting women and all family members from family violence’ – Law 293 (That’s you). A good change has been noticed in the behavior of the Internal Security Forces after the ratifying of this law; a lot of cases have come forward. There are many more who still don’t. Nevertheless, a problem is still occurring and that is the lack of accurate reading under Law 293 that agrees on what characterizes as violence. Dear Law 293, it is time to let go of all cultural and religious obstacles and focus on achieving the right for every human being to have safety and protection. Dear Law 293, you did not need KAFA to be a man; the most powerful man of all.
Yours, The People of Lebanon
