2 WOMEN'S RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Abstract

★rights. The French mandate authorities, in agreement with the Lebanese authorities, included equal civil and political rights for all Lebanese citizens in the 1926 constitution. However, the election law did not give women the right to vote, prompting new protests by women’s rights activists. With the emergence of the campaign for independence from the French mandate, women’s suffrage lost its importance on the national front. In stead, women joined with men in organizing and taking part in demonstrations for independence across the country. After the independence was fi nally achieved in 1943, sectarian discord kept the women’s movement from regaining its previous momentum. It was not until 1953 that the Lebanese Women’s Council was offi cially established, and all Lebanese women received the right to vote and run in elections as candidates. 1 This achievement did not result in women’s representation in the parliament until the early 1990s, apart from one exception in 1963. 2 The women’s movement was also derailed by the 1975–90 civil war, as activists shifted their focus to social and relief services, helping to fithe gap left by the shattered state. The movement was revived after the war, and newly created women’s networks began to concentrate their efforts on the reform of discriminatory laws. Lebanon ratifi ed the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1997. The following year, the government formed the National Com mission for Lebanese Women (NCLW) to oversee the implementation of the goals of CEDAW and the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, and to develop national strategies and programs for the empowerment of women. 3 The end of the Syrian occupation was precipitated by the February 2005 assassination of Rafi c Hariri, who had overseen Lebanon’s reconstruction while serving as prime minister for most of the postwar period.

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