Today marks Lebanon’s first approved civil marriage

Share:

Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel signed the civil marriage certificate of Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish, the state-run National News Agency reported on Thursday.

“By this, Succariyeh and Darwish’s union becomes the first civil marriage registered in the records of the Directorate General for Personal Affairs in Lebanon,” the NNA noted.

Charbel, however, pointed out: “Their religions must not be changed and the couple’s marriage would follow the laws of personal affairs that their sects stipulate, awaiting issuing a code that governs optional civil marriage in the country.”

He explained that this is because there are no texts concerning divorce, inheritance and kids for “people with no religious affiliation.”

Following the spread of the news, President Michel Suleiman congratulated the couple via Twitter over the official registration of their civil marriage.

The Lebanese Supreme Council in the Ministry of Justice took an unanimous decision in February to consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.

Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish announced in January they had wed as a secular couple by having their religious sects legally struck from their family registers under an article dating from the 1936 French mandate.

Suleiman has since lobbied for a civil marriage law as a “very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity.”

Meanwhile, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani rejected it.

Qabbani issued a fatwa against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country, where couples of different faiths have to travel abroad to tie the knot.

Naharnet

Share:

Comments

10 responses to “Today marks Lebanon’s first approved civil marriage”

  1. Patience2 Avatar
    Patience2

    And no ‘fuzzy-faces’ breathing down their necks!

  2. Patience2 Avatar
    Patience2

    And no ‘fuzzy-faces’ breathing down their necks!

  3. Constantin7 Avatar
    Constantin7

    This is great news, it is about time that people can choose who and how to marry.
    However, what does it mean: “…. consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.” In Lebanon, everybody has a religious affiliation, even these 2 who just got married….Does this mean they had to declare in writing somehow that they do not have a religious affiliation (contrary to their civil registry). Everything is complicated in Lebanon. In any case great step forward, whether approved or not approved by religious leaders.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      They went to great lengths. Complicated?? True. Very weird too.
      Best not to be women and female children if the ‘man’ of the family dies. Trying to have their property rights recognized can kill them.

  4. Constantin7 Avatar
    Constantin7

    This is great news, it is about time that people can choose who and how to marry.
    However, what does it mean: “…. consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.” In Lebanon, everybody has a religious affiliation, even these 2 who just got married….Does this mean they had to declare in writing somehow that they do not have a religious affiliation (contrary to their civil registry). Everything is complicated in Lebanon. In any case great step forward, whether approved or not approved by religious leaders.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      They went to great lengths. Complicated?? True. Very weird too.
      Best not to be women and female children if the ‘man’ of the family dies. Trying to have their property rights recognized can kill them.

  5. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Cudos for ‘Sticktoituitiveness’.
    They better frame THAT document carefully and stick it in a bank-vault in Cyprus. 😉
    Their kids can sell it in 50 years to a museum. But hopefully not as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ historical document – just the first one.
    Qabbani can go suck a fat….wad.

  6. 5thDrawer Avatar
    5thDrawer

    Cudos for ‘Sticktoituitiveness’.
    They better frame THAT document carefully and stick it in a bank-vault in Cyprus. 😉
    Their kids can sell it in 50 years to a museum. But hopefully not as a ‘one-of-a-kind’ historical document.
    Qabbani can suck a fat….

  7. Hannibal Avatar

    Congratulations LEBANON!

  8. Hannibal Avatar

    Congratulations LEBANON!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *