Al Hayat newspaper highlighted yesterday the question of early marriage in Lebanon which is detested and contested by many human rights and women organizations. This phenomenon, Al Hayat wrote, is largely viewed in terms of its violation of children’s rights and in its negative effects on their emotional and physical health, after it has been perceived in the past as a normal incidence from the social and legal perspectives. Unlike a man, a young woman approaching her thirty years used to be so-called a ‘spinster or old maid’, but today, it is commonplace to find many women aged 30 and above who are still single, especially in urban areas. Liberation and independence, as well as, increasing involvement of women, in terms of their number and status, in the labor market have become the trend. This, Al Hayat went on to say, has contributed extensively to raising the average age of marriage among women, prompting several social and spiritual bodies to caution against what they call an emerging and alarming situation and its repercussions on the family and community. The newspaper reminisced Hizbullah leader’s speech on March 18 in which he publicly endorsed the culture of early marriage and accused whoever fights it to be an accomplice of the devil. For more on the subject, Al Hayat spoke to activist Jennifer Saliba (28 years) struggling to raise the minimum age of marriage in the country to 18 years for both sexes. Saliba explained that the problem is inherent in the sectarian personal status law, where each religious sect is entitled to follow its own legal system or spiritual and sharia courts. She criticized the slackness and indifference by the government allegedly entrusted to protecting its citizens while in reality it is silently watching the explicit encroachment by these systems upon the rights of the child stipulated by relevant international conventions to which Lebanon is a signatory. (Al Hayat, November 20, 2017)
