Daily Star staff
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BEIRUT: Around 200 women’s rights defenders braved torrential rain Tuesday evening to march from several locations of the capital to the area of Ain al-Mreisseh in a rally against sexual harassment.
As part of the “Take Back the Night” march, activists departed from the districts of Hamra, Raouche, Sodeco and Cola, and converged on the seaside corniche, where a sit-in was held for an hour in a bid to raise awareness about sexual harassment in public places.
“The demonstration is called Take Back the Night, which means the streets are not owned by the men,” said Mirna Haidar, a 21-year-old student.
“Women cannot walk down the streets without being harassed every time they pass in front of a man,” added Zeinab Nasser.
The protestors held signs reading “My body is not public property,” and chanted slogans such as “The Lebanese women want revolution and freedom” and “Woman want to topple discrimination.”
Several men also took part in the demonstration in support of “the right of women to walk freely in the streets without being exposed to [offensive] comments,” as 28-year-old environmental activist Shadi Ghrawi put it.
According to Rabih Yazbeck, gender equality will have an impact on the whole country, and on men in particular. “This is a necessary step toward a healthy society.”
Demonstrators said they were also protesting for a reform of the nationality law, which does not allow a Lebanese woman to pass her nationality to her children if she is married to a foreigner.
“We’re waging a revolution, a feminist revolution, demanding a very basic human right: I’m a woman and I want to pass my nationality to my kids,” said Haidar.
The demonstration was organized by the feminist group Nasawiya, who took the streets last weekend to interview women about the main challenges they face and the changes they would like to see happening in society. One of Nasawiya’s activists said these interviews showed that women would not spontaneously speak about sexual harassment, although almost all of them answered positively when asked if they were ever subjected to it.
“On matters of sexual harassment, gender inequality, violence, the biggest problem is the lack of awareness and the silence,” said Joelle Moufarrej.
Ali Dawi, a 24-year-old civil engineer, agreed. “It’s something in our culture, we’ve been raised to act like this as men,” he said, adding that men took advantage of the fact that many women were not aware of their rights and “put up with the situation.”
“Men do it simply because they can, because it’s easy, because no one talks against it,” Moufarrej added.
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