„Women in Lebanon are protesting for the removal of a law that allows rapists to escape punishment for their crimes as long as they marry the survivor. The outdated statute from the 1940s currently says that rape is punishable by up to seven years in prison. The penalty for raping a minor or someone with mental or physical disabilities is higher – but Article 522 of the law creates a loophole which says that criminal prosecution is suspended if the two people involved get married.
On Tuesday, around a dozen women wearing white dresses and bandages stained with fake blood staged a demonstration outside the government building in downtown Beirut to signify their support for changing the archaic law.
‚We reject this violation of women regardless of their age, background, environment, whether they have special needs or the circumstances of the rape,‘ said Ghida Anani, head of Abaad, a local NGO campaigning against it on rights grounds. (…)
‚This is like saying the victim is a victim twice, a daily victim because she has to share her life with a person that violated her, and is hence raped every day,‘ she said.“ (Bethan McKernan: „Women in Lebanon protest law allowing rapists to marry their victims to escape punishment“)
