Proposed Personal Status Legislation Slammed

A draft law on personal status violates women’s and children’s rights, said a May 24 editorial on the independent local website, Syrian Women.



Bassam al-Qadi, the website’s editor-in-chief, accused clerics of lobbying for the drafting of the new laws.



He said that a group of clerics pressed politicians to uphold an existing law pertaining to honour crime, which pardons males who kill their wives or female relatives for “bringing [dishonour] upon their families”.



Qadi said that the new draft law violated the Syrian constitution and international conventions that call for gender equality.



He noted that the proposed legislation placed women under the authority of a male guardian.



He also denounced some of the law’s articles that absolve male rapists if they agree to marry their victims.



There are currently no civil laws in Syria pertaining to marriage, inheritance and divorce.



Personal status matters are dealt with by Sharia courts for the Sunni and Shia Muslims who make up some 75 per cent of the population, and analogous religious courts for Christian, Jewish and Druze communities.



Another May 24 article on the pro-government website, all4syria, said that the new draft law had sparked indignation among the Christian community in Syria.



The author of the piece said that Christian clerics were angered that if passed, the new law would prevent them from conducting marriage ceremonies for Christians and would also give Christian men the right to marry more than one woman, which, they believe, is against Christian teachings.