Lebanese activists have staged their campaigns to abort the controversial rape law that allows rapists to walk free if they married their victims. The Lebanese Parliament is set to discuss the elimination of this article from the penal code in a session to be held on May 15. A proposal to scrap the article 522 had been introduced last year and got accepted in February. Activists hope that the Parliament will vote in favor of the elimination of this article. About 30 wedding dresses were hung from nooses between palm trees on Beirut’s seafront, as a symbolic rejection of the current law that is thought to fail the victim from obtaining her rights. Lebanese Minister of Women’s Affairs Jean Oghassabian strongly condemned the current law, and described it as being from “the stone age”. Lebanon is not the only country in the Arab world that suffers from the rape law that gives privileges to rapists. However, Egypt, Iraq, and Morocco have repealed these laws that allow rapists to escape punishments. Mauritania There is no law that is specified to rape in Mauritania. However, rape cases are dealt with in the…
