The Lebanese MPs Who Voted Against The Domestic Abuse Law

A list of Lebanese MPs who tried to pass the domestic abuse law is being circulated around the internet. While those MPs should be applauded for their enthusiasm and – sadly in this country – courage for taking a stance regarding this matter, the fact that three Lebanese women – two in the past month – have fallen victim to domestic abuse is making this particular matter a top priority.

Domestic abuse is not a joke. We all know it. It’s sad that we have to say that but there are MPs who decided not to fight it. Looking at who’s in parliament at the moment and at the list of MPs who supported the bill, I managed to come up with a list of those who may not want to protect our women against the abuse in their lives.

The list you’re about to read encompasses MPs from different religious, different political parties and – interestingly – also features a woman.

1. Nayla Tueini – Future Movement
2. Michel Pharaon – Independent In M14
3. Hani Kobeissi – Amal Movement
4. Nohad el Machnouk – Future Movement
5. Saad Hariri – Future Movement
6. Ammar Houry – Future Movement
7. Imad el Hout – Future Movement
8. Ghazi Aridi – PSP
9. Khaled Zahraman – Future Movement
10. Khaled El Daher – Future Movement
11. Mouiine El Merhebi – Future Movement
12. Khodr Habib – Future Movement
13. Hachem Alameddine – Future Movement
14. Kassem Abdulaziz – Safadi Bloc
15. Mohammad Safadi – Safadi Bloc
16. Najib Mikati – Tripoli MP
17. Ahmad Karami – Tripoli MP
18. Samir El Jisr – Future Movement
19. Mohammad Kabbara – Independent Within M14
20. Badr Wannous – Future Movement
21. Robert  Fadel – Independent Within M14
22. Farid Makari – Future Movement
23. Nicolas Ghosn – Future Movement
24. Abbas Hachem – FPM
25. Michel Aoun – FPM
26. Nabil Nicolas – FPM
27. Ghassan Moukheiber – FPM
28. Michel Murr – Independent
29. Alain Aoun – FPM
30. Ali Ammar – Hezbollah
31. Bilal Farhat – Hezbollah
32. Fady el Aawar – Aley MP
33. Talal Arslan – Aley MP
34. Akram Chehayeb – PSP
35. Walid Jumblatt – PSP
36. Elie Aoun – PSP
37. Nehme Tohme – PSP
38. Alaeddine Terro – PSP
39. Ibrahim Najjar – Future Movement
40. Fouad Siniora – Future Movement
41. Nabih Berri – Amal Movement
42. Ali Osseiran – Amal Movement
43. Michel Moussa – Amal Movement
44. Ali Khreis – Amal Movement
45. Mohammad Fneish – Hezbollah
46. Nawwaf Moussawi – Hezbollah
47. Ali Ahmad Bazzi – Amal Movement
48. Ayoub Hmayed – Amal Movement
49. Hassan Fadlallah – Hezbollah
50. Abdellatif Zein – Amal Movement
51. Yassine Jaber – Amal Movement
52. Mohammad Raad – Hezbollah
53. Ali Hassan Khalil – Amal Movement
54. Ali Fayyad – Hezbollah
55. Anwar Khalil – Amal Movement
56. Kassem Hachem – Ba’ath Party
57. Assaad Hardan – SSNP
58. Jamal Jarrah – Future Movement
59. Ziad el Kadiri – Future Movement
60. Wael Abou Faour – PSP
61. Robert Ghanem – Independent Within M14
62. Nicolas Fattouche – Zahle MP
63. Assem Araji – Zahle MP
64. Okab Sakr – Zahle MP
65. Hussein Moussawi – Hezbollah
66. Hussein El Hage Hassan – Hezbollah
67. Nawwar el Sahili – Hezbollah
68. Ali Mekdad – Hezbollah
69. Ghazi Zaiter – Amal Movement
70. Assem Qanso – Ba’ath Party
71. Elwalid Succariyeh – Hezbollah
72. Kamel Rifaii – Islamic Action Front

Our political parties desperately need a change of names. How is it a future movement if the future they have in mind is not one where our women are immune to the hands, pans and poisons killing them? And how is it a movement of amal when Lebanese women have no amal of a better future for themselves and their daughters? I won’t make any assumptions about what God may or may not want.

It’s not enough that our parliament barely has women due to our patriarchally-driven political system but to make things worse, one of the women in parliament also decided not to look out for her own. What has Nayla Tueini been doing with her time exactly? What causes is she trying to advance? It’s even sadder when the youth on whom we pin our hopes disappoint us.

The only two political blocs in parliament that have had all their members support the bill are the Lebanese Forces and the Kataeb parties, which isn’t that difficult to do given their limited representation numbers. None of the main politicians in parliament – Michel Aoun, Saad Hariri, Nabih Berri & Najib Mikati – actually voted for the bill, but I would assume Saad Hariri did not make the roll call as a result of his compulsory and prolonged sabbatical.

For a parliament that has managed to pass next to no laws, it sure knows how to say no to the laws that matter. In a couple of months time, once this same parliament approves our new government, the talk about the laws regarding our women will dwindle as our MPs start running around like giddy children for our upcoming presidential race. Following theoretical presidential elections, the talk will shift to the electoral law which these MPs will tailor in order to get themselves back into the legislative chairs which will never see those MPs legislate.

It’d be interesting to see how many of those 72 MPs who shot down the domestic abuse law will get re-elected come theoretical-late-2014 elections. And, if we had decent polling, it’d be more interesting to see how many women vote for those MPs, completely unaware that the horrors they have to sustain are to be blamed on those people whose names they are casting in a ballot.