Mazin Sidahmed
Pro-civil marriage activists rejected an announcement by the Interior Ministry Monday stating that Lebanon cannot recognize civil marriages registered on its territories due to the absence of an official law governing the process. “Civil marriage laws are not the responsibility of the Interior Ministry,” lawyer Talal Husseini, a pro-civil marriage activist, told The Daily Star. “The [current] law [which was approved by the Justice Ministry] will not change because it has nothing to do with the Interior Ministry.”
Generally, Lebanese couples wishing to carry out civil marriage travel abroad to places like Cyprus or Turkey. While the Lebanese state fully recognizes civil unions completed outside Lebanon, civil marriages performed on Lebanese territories, that several couples have opted for in the past year, look to be problematic.
Husseini explained that civil marriage contracts performed in Lebanon had proven to be legal under Lebanese law and the Interior Ministry could not refuse to register a legal marriage that is accepted by the Justice Ministry.
His remarks came following an announcement from Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk in which he said that while he supported the principle of optional civil marriage, the registration of those contracts requires a specific law outlining the procedure.
A statement from the Interior Ministry said that the 1936 law, which pro-civil marriage activists say legalizes civil marriage, also stipulates the need for an official mechanism regulating the practice of civil marriage. This mechanism must be submitted to the Cabinet before the law can be implemented, the statement said.
“We face this every time there is a new interior minister but everyone knows that the Justice Ministry has made it legal,” Husseini said.
Last year, the High Committee for Consultations in the Justice Ministry approved the first civil marriage to be performed in Lebanon between Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish, after the couple removed their official sects from their documents.
Husseini and other pro-civil marriage activists helped the couple stake their claim over an interpretation of decree No. 60 of the 1936 law, which grants civil rights to people with no religious affiliation.
The couple went on to have a child who became the first child to be born from a civil marriage registered in Lebanon.
Since their marriage, Husseini said seven other civil marriage contracts had been issued in Lebanon.
“Nobody can take back our marriage,” Darwish told The Daily Star defiantly. “I got married in Hermel, that’s where I registered my marriage, that’s where I registered the birth of my son, so what mechanism are you talking about?”
“They are submitting to pressure from religious figures that are against civil marriage,” he added.
The announcement indicates a change in the interior minister’s attitude toward civil marriage. In January 2013, Machnouk expressed his support for civil marriage via a post on his Facebook page.
“What’s the difference between a couple going to Cyprus to have civil marriage and those who do it in Lebanon if it was optional?” the Facebook post read. “Why don’t we facilitate the issue for them rather than having them travel outside the country? I accept freedom for every citizen regarding what they want to do in their private life.”
The Facebook post was widely shared following the announcement. However, Machnouk did state that he supports the principle of civil marriage.
Both Husseini and Darwish maintain that the Interior Ministry’s announcement will have little impact on those wishing to complete a civil marriage contract in the future, as the law remains unchanged.
They plan to hold a news conference Thursday in which they will issue a response to the Interior Ministry’s decision.
“[At the news conference] we’re going to give the response of the Lebanese people,” Darwish said. “We will explain that this announcement is not worth the ink it was written with.”
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