Activists fuelling reform of outrageous rape laws
Art and protest can be powerful catalysts for change — even more so when they are combined.
Consider the viral photo of 18-yearold Tunisian feminist Amina Sboui with the words “My body belongs to me. It is not the source of anyone’s honour,” written across her bare chest. Or the eerie appearance of redcloaked “handmaids” at U.S. state legislatures where anti-choice bills are being debated.
You can say a lot about women’s autonomy by revealing how they are expected — or permitted — to dress.
People around the world have been haunted by recent images of 31 wedding dresses hanging from nooses, swaying in the breeze by the Beirut seaside. The installation on the city’s well-travelled corniche appeared April 22, drawing attention to an archaic article of the Lebanese Penal Code that allows rapists to escape punishment if they marry their victims.
In Lebanon, rape is punishable by up to seven years in prison — more if the victim is disabled or a minor. However, Article 522 creates a loophole to suspend prosecution of an accused — or even sentencing of a convicted rapist — if an attacker and his victim marry. The article extends to kidnapping and the rape of minors.
In protest, Mireille Honein, a Lebanese artist in Paris, designed 31 dresses of wrapping paper and lace. Alia Awada, advocacy and campaign manager for the gender equality group ABAAD, has explained: “There are 31 days in a month and every single day, a woman may be raped and forced to marry her rapist.”
Activists are battling an enduring cultural perception of sexual assault as a stain on a woman’s honour. Families may pressure or force victims to marry their assailants — putting them at risk of continued violence.
Honein’s installation builds on a December protest in which ABAAD demonstrators wore wedding gowns and white bandages spattered in red paint. The action was part of a campaign against gender-based violence promoting the message “A white dress doesn’t cover the rape” and #undress522.
The message has been effective. Lebanon’s parliamentary committee for administration and justice has recommended Article 522 be abolished. The newly appointed minister for women’s affairs agrees it is “from the Stone Age.”
It’s now up to the Lebanese parliament to repeal the article.
But the current parliamentary session has a lot to cover on the heels of a 29-month legislative hiatus in which the country had no president. At the top of the list is ratifying a new election law. Currently, parliamentary seats are allocated by religious sect.
The current parliament was elected to a four-year term in 2009. Its mandate has already been extended twice. President Michel Aoun has refused to extend it a third time without elections. However, if parliament cannot agree on a voting law, legislative reforms may be further delayed.
In general, marriage escape clauses for rapists are on the wane. Morocco scrapped its Article 475 in 2014, two years after the suicide of a 16-year-old girl who was forced to marry her attacker. Similar statutes were abolished in Egypt in 1999 and Ethiopia in 2004.
More countries are following suit. Bahrain’s parliament has eliminated rape-marriage provisions, pending cabinet approval. Jordan is also poised to abolish its controversial Article 308, which concerns rape victims aged 15 to 18, subject to a parliamentary vote.
Last year, Turkey drew ire with proposed legislation to pardon men who had “unforced” sex with minors if they got married. Legislators claimed the bill was a practical response to the widespread practice of child marriage. The legislation was rightly abandoned in the face of international outrage.
No matter how you dress it, rape is a crime.