[LCM Articles] In memory of civil marriage - NICOSIA - Lea Sawaya

[Jimmy Kassis]

Carla and Wissam met some seven years ago during a training course. He 
thought she was arrogant, she did not notice him at the time.

Yet, in a little more than a year, they had a modern romance. Recently, they 
decided to get married.

Wissam is a 29-year old Sunni Muslim and Carla is a 29-year Greek Orthodox 
Christian. He did not want to tie the knot in a church and she did not want 
to meet a Sheikh. They were left with only one option: a civil marriage in 
Cyprus.

They were both fine with this alternative, as it would preserve the rights 
of both in maintaining their beliefs and would not offend their families. 
The process was really easy. They were partly familiar with it as a few of 
their friends did it. The website of the Cypriot authorities also 
facilitated the process.

They took an appointment via email with the civil marriage officer who 
explained every detail. The time needed to contract the marriage is one day. 
A second day might be needed to ensure all steps are completed. They took 
the appointment for a “marriage by special notice”, which is a formula 
tailored for foreigners who need to marry in a short period. The fee for the 
marriage by special notice is 165 Cypriot pounds, the equivalent of about $ 
310.

“Our appointment at the Nicosia Municipality was on Friday June 13 at 10 am. 
Perhaps it was a good luck sign,” said Carla.

“In shorts and sandals, we were at the municipality on time and met with the 
officer who ensured we had the proper documents and took some information to 
prepare our file,” added Wissam.

The officer was quite familiar with Lebanese people, since many of them come 
to Nicosia to have a civil marriage. All the Cypriot municipalities are 
prepared to receive marriage applications for foreigners and provide the 
needed information on their websites. Civil marriage in Cyprus was 
introduced in 1923.

“In half an hour, we went to the Judge, a very old lady wearing glaring red 
and a big silver medal,” the couple explained. “We stood in front of her and 
I put my hand on the Bible while Wissam put his hand on the Koran swearing 
that we know of no hindrance to our marriage and will abide by the Cypriot 
civil marriage laws”, said Carla.

Then, on the tunes of soft music, each one of them pronounced life-lasting 
love vows, by which the judge married them. They signed the marriage 
certificate along with two witnesses.

They stamped the marriage certificate at the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs. Then they sent it to the Lebanese Embassy in Nicosia also for 
stamping and later sending it to Lebanon’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that 
registers the marriage in Lebanon.

This last stage is important to make sure that in Lebanon the law regards 
them as a married couple.

“The civil marriage experience exceeded our expectations,” expressed the 
happy couple as they “enjoyed every minute of it particularly the easy and 
simple but also very intimate process and the vows that were an exact 
translation of our feelings”.

The civil marriage was the only neutral way to legalize their relationship 
in a country, where interfaith marriages are not performed, and living 
together outside marriage is still a taboo.

Lebanon is presumed to be a democratic republic and is perhaps the most 
westernized and diverse of the Arab countries. However, with 18 religious 
communities coexisting after a 15-year civil war, it is still a country, 
like neighboring Israel, Jordan and Syria, that does not offer a choice to 
people who do not wish to surrender to the authority of religion.

Lebanon does not offer an alternative to those people who would like to 
exercise their basic rights as human beings over matters pertaining to 
personal status such as marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance.

Lebanese Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), some intellectuals and 
political parties have been trying to push forward this issue but have been 
facing strong opposition.

The latest attempt to introduce an optional civil personal status law was 
proposed by the Progressive Socialist Party, the Syrian Social Nationalist 
Party, the National Bloc, the Secular Democratic Party and the People's 
Rights Movement and was sent to Parliament.

A previous attempt took place back in 1998 by President Elias Hrawi who 
forwarded a legislation permitting optional civil marriage to the Cabinet 
that approved it despite the objection of the Prime Minister Rafic Hariri 
and some other ministers.

However, when reaching the members of parliament it was shelved due to the 
strong resistance from the religious leadership of all sects.

In both cases, the confrontation was immediate with the Sunni religious 
authority response being the most radical.

The Shiite Muslim position towards this draft law was moderate. The 
Christians’ opposition to the law stemmed partly from the Christian-Muslim 
bargaining process.

The influence of religious authorities in Lebanon is quite powerful. Not all 
Lebanese are convinced that a civil society will be in their interest.

A survey conducted by Information International in 1998 revealed that 57.3 
percent of the population believes that the civil marriage option should not 
be available in Lebanon, while 5.9 percent were indifferent. Nevertheless, 
younger people seemed to be the most in favor of civil marriage.

A correlation was detected between age groups and propensity toward civil 
marriage, with younger people being more likely to believe in having the 
choice of civil marriage.

More than half of respondents (52.2 percent) aged between 15-24 years 
believed that this choice should be available, while the percentage 
progressively decreases in the older age groups.

Regarding different sects, Sunnite respondents led the opposition to the 
civil marriage alternative with 71.8 percent against it and 24.7 percent in 
favor of it.

This was followed by Shiite respondents that were 69.2 percent opposed to it 
and 25.6 percent in support of it.

Just over half of the Druze surveyed (51.9 percent) were against it, with 
36.4 percent in favor while Catholics were evenly divided at 45.5 percent 
both supporting and opposing the option.

The only two sects that produced a majority in supporting civil marriage 
were the Maronites and the Orthodox, with 52.6 percent of Maronites in favor 
of the initiative and 42.6 percent against it while 47.7 percent of the 
Orthodox respondents were in favor whereas 40.9 percent did not give their 
consent.

Lebanon, which currently recognizes only civil marriages performed outside 
its borders, would benefit tremendously from the application of an optional 
civil marriage law.

Such an arrangement would encourage mixed marriages and would also seek to 
institutionalize equality between genders on many levels, including that of 
marital rights, inheritance, and child custody as compared to most religious 
marriages that favor fathers.

Civil marriage would legalize adoption, as well, forbidden under Islamic 
law. It could also pave the way for a possible abolishment of sectarianism 
in a country that has been severely suffering from this problem ever since 
it existed.

Civil marriage would deprive religious leaders of power and financial 
interests. The religious authorities in Lebanon maintain a balance of power 
that has been constantly used to obstruct any possibility for the 
development of a secular state and society.

Contracting a marriage in a church would cost at least $150 to pay the 
clergy a similar fee is paid to a Sheikh contracting a Muslim wedding and 
the amount can rise endlessly depending on the status of the religious 
figure.

Civil marriage can secure a source of income to the Lebanese government that 
is currently trying to seize any potential revenues for its ailing finances.

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