Lebanon: Parliament Set To Abolish Law which Allows Rapists Escape Punishment By Marrying Their Victims..

Lebanon’s Parliament has taken a first step towards abolishing a law that allows rapists to avoid punishment if they marry their victims. Protestors stormed Beirut's streets on Tuesday wearing white dresses and bandages stained with fake blood, demonstrating outside the city's main Government building.

The law from the 1940s currently says that rape is punishable by up to seven years in prison with a higher penalty for raping a minor or someone with mental or physical disabilities. However, Article 522 of the law creates a loophole which says that criminal prosecution is suspended if the two people involved get married.

After a review of the statute on Wednesday, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri tweeted that a parliamentary committee had agreed to set the wheels in motion towards abolishing the outdated law. "We await the completion of this civilised step in the nearest legislative session," Mr Hariri told NNA news agency.Kataeb political party president Samy Gemayel also supported the move, saying he hoped it would be approved quickly, according to NNA.

Previously, supporters of the article had argued that marriage was a way to save the honour of a raped woman, suggesting that if the law was rewritten, wedding an attacker could be left as an option for families to choose if they wished.

However, Ghida Anani, head of ABAAD, a local NGO campaigning against the law, said it was a clear violation of women’s rights. “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. “We reject this violation of women regardless of their age, background, environment, whether they have special needs or the circumstances of the rape.”