Daily Star - Domestic Violence

By Patrick Galey Daily Star staff

BAALBEK: Mohammad Outa sits in the corner of the crowded community center office and attempts to explain the link between beekeeping and domestic violence. “The discussion did a good job at shining a light on a problem. It gave us a chance to speak about something taboo,” he says. Outa is the head of an association of 400 beekeepers throughout the Bekaa Valley, the local members of which were recently the subjects of a groundbreaking project aimed at getting men involved in the fight to stop violence against women. The initiative, launched jointly between Lebanese anti-domestic abuse charity KAFA and Oxfam UK, seeks to make male communities speak about violence against women in return for practical skills and advice – in Ouda’s case, beekeeping. Walid Assaf, director at DARI, one of Baalbek’s largest community centers, which hosted the recent discussions, explains the motivation behind tackling domestic violence through professional guidance. “We recognize that if we want this relationship with men in the region, we need some give and take. In order to make a topic that might not be of interest now relevant, we need to give them something in return, something that they would benefit from,” he says. “It was important for the men to speak about both things.” Outa sees the new initiative as a way of tackling one problem through conversation about another. “You couldn’t just speak about [violence against women] immediately; people wouldn’t come. This was a case of two birds with one stone,” he says. The two things are not as disparate as they initially seem. A virulent strain of disease is damaging the Bekaa’s bee population and threatening many beekeepers’ livelihoods. Outa himself supervises 100 hives, many of which are in danger of dying. Since he produces 700 kilograms of honey annually – each selling for $30-40 – the stakes are high and participation in KAFA and Oxfam’s program worthwhile, he says. “This program addresses two sicknesses, one very literal with bees and another that is having a negative effect on a society as a whole,” Outa adds. At the discussion, sachets of disease-fighting medicine were handed out to those in attendance. In addition, Assaf believes, a man’s working environment has a large bearing on his behavior at home. “One of the things that contribute to violence against women is the stress that men undergo when they are the primary breadwinner and there is a problem with work. They will bring that stress home with them and then take it out there,” he says. Baalbek’s pilot project is the first component of KAFA and Oxfam’s “strategy and approach for engaging men and boys to end violence against women in the Middle East.”Anthony Keedi, the project’s technical adviser, explains the need for a delicate and mutually beneficial approach to discussing such a delicate subject as domestic violence with men. “We are trying not to silence them; we want free and open discussions,” he says. “We want them to say whatever they like and then give and take with them, to have them realize the inherent truths of the situation and falsify whatever they may have thought before that was inaccurate from their own doing.” Hussein Balouk has been married for 12 years and has two young children. He took up beekeeping a few years ago as a means of supplementing the income brought by his bread oven. “Times being what they are, having one business would not be sustainable, so I needed to do something else,” he says. He proudly displays his hives, situated on a sparse and scruffy hill overlooking the town. A man dressed in beekeeping whites tends the swarm while Balouk talks about domestic violence. “It’s a very important topic, especially in our area. It is becoming a big problem because of the lack of work in the country and economic problems. That lack of work leads to stress, which exacerbates violence,” he says. “Censorship also needs to be put in place on the Internet and new films, so as not to encourage violence against women.” Neither Outa nor Balouk has witnessed domestic violence against women first-hand but, after some gentle persuasion, they admit that it is a more widespread phenomenon than gets reported. “I have no personal experience with violence against women,” says Outa. “It does exist and it is a problem here, but it primarily happens when someone moves away from religion,” he adds. Both men were signatories to a joint KAFA/Oxfam petition, presented to Parliament, imploring the illegalization of violence against women. Last week the Cabinet endorsed, for the first time, the draft bill that will be sent to the legislature. “We do try to stop [violence against women], but we are not the government,” says Outa. “We think our responsibility is to convince whoever is being violent against a woman that this is the wrong way. To punish someone directly for such actions would mean they wouldn’t convert to the school of thought of ending violence.” Keedi hopes to arrange further meetings with other sectors of the Bekaa’s male community, including a discussion with local sheikhs over religion’s view on violence against women. He is, however, aware of the work that is required to stop all men – not just the beekeepers – abusing their wives and daughters. “Our eventual hope is to change some of the gender equality issues in these communities, create dialogues and relationships with the community,” he says. “It’s going to take a lot of people to be comfortable enough to speak about it, to have a debate, to have social change take place.”