“National Bloc”: The Authorities' Withdrawal from Adopting Civil Marriage Reveals the Intention to Continue the Sectarian Screening of Citizens
The “Lebanese National Bloc Party” stressed on the fact that the authorities' permanent withdrawal from adopting civil marriage, in reply to the religious authorities' opposition to it, is a sign of weakness; in addition, this withdrawal reveals the authorities’ intention to continue the sectarian screening of citizens aggravating their differences and fears, which is the authorities’ only policy to remain in power.
In a statement, the party said that the tragic death of Nadine Jouni, the citizen and mother who fought for the custody of her son, reminds us of the need to raise the question of optional civil marriage, which the “National Bloc” was the first to put forward in 1952.
The party affirmed the right of this civil marriage for several reasons. First, faith is an innate, rational and not coercive matter; divine religions have pointed out to that as well as the Lebanese constitution in article 9 on the protection of the freedom of belief. It is also important to highlight that the Lebanese are free, sophisticated and educated people, and Lebanon has played a key role in the Arab renaissance and in the Arab intellectual movement for more than a century and a half. Lebanon is characterized by the serious and insolent intellectual and scientific productions of both its residents and emigrants. Therefore, considering our people unable to make decisions is a humiliation of citizens.
When referring to the duplication in implementing the law despite its clarity, Lebanon registers civil marriages conducted abroad, but not the ones occurring in Lebanon. The party emphasized that this is a type of schizophrenia on both social and legal levels and a battered right of the law that was initially established to protect the right.