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Lebanese American University Civil Society in a Sectarian Context: the Women's Movement in Post-War Lebanon

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Lebanese American University Civil Society in a Sectarian Context: the Women's Movement in Post-War Lebanon View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Lebanese American University Repository LEBANESE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY CIVIL SOCIETY IN A SECTARIAN CONTEXT: THE WOMEN’S MOVEMENT IN POST-WAR LEBANON By LARA KHATTAB A thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in International Affairs School of Arts and Sciences Summer 2010 For my mother and father who gave me wings to fly and taught me the value of perseverance and dedication For my twin, Ranya, who provided me with love and support while in Montréal For all the Lebanese women, who like me share this love hate relationship with their country that continues to treat them like strangers iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Those are the first words that you read from this thesis, yet they are the last words that I have written for a research that has taken a little bit more than a year to complete. The finishing of this long learning process is eclipsed by events that remind me of the issues addressed here. Only a month ago, newspaper articles reported that husbands and children of Lebanese women married to non-nationals continue to be expelled from Lebanon. When people continue to be humiliated, imprisoned, expelled and tortured on a daily basis, can an MA student like me justify her pursuit for knowledge, safely at home or in the library? If this thesis has any significance at all, I hope is to help understand the circumstances that shape our daily routine or in the words of my advisor, the context that we live in. By doing so, we can take decisions in light of these contexts and avoid jeopardizing rights that are necessary for the health of democracy in Lebanon. This thesis is the product of the work that extended over a full year. All my gratitude goes to the people who helped me finish it. First of all, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Bassel Salloukh, for the academic guidance, comments, patience, support, ongoing encouragement and most importantly for infusing me with a passion for research in general and fieldwork research in particular. I am also greatly indebted to Dr. Amal Sabbagh, who influenced my understanding of qualitative fieldwork research. I would also like to thank the women and men who shared with me their interesting stories. Without them, this learning experience would not have been possible. Finally, I would like to thank my father and mother for their ongoing support and patience. Sorry for making your life a living hell throughout this year! iv ABSTRACT Lara Khattab for Master in Arts Major : International Affairs Title: Civil Society in a Sectarian Context : the Women’s Movement in Post-War Lebanon. This thesis problematizes the literature underscoring the role of civil society in bringing about democratic reforms, complementing the most recent approaches in studying the persistence of authoritarianism in the Arab world but moves away from them by focusing on the highly fragmented context of Lebanon where sectarian leaders developed strategies towards women’s advocacy community to impede gender social policy reforms and democratic outcomes. It thus focuses on the limited success that the women’s movement in Lebanon achieved since its inception. The thesis examines the strategies of the sectarian ruling elite vis-à-vis women’s rights NGOs to explain how they may neutralize, divide, co-opt and manipulate these associations to preserve their sectarian control or use them to further their own political interests. This thesis also argues that sectarian leaders are not the only party to blame for the neutralization of women’s groups, but also elite women with strong ties to the sectarian and religious leaders play an instrumental role in this process. This, consequently, impedes prospects for gender-based reforms and democratic consolidation. Grassroots women’s demands are downplayed as they upset the formal and informal pillars of political power in Lebanon: sectarianism and clientelism. In this deeply divided context, civic groups seeking gender equality and a greater democratization of the system are only allowed to raise issues that consolidate or, at best, fail to challenge the hegemony of the sectarian ruling elites and their social allies. Moreover, this thesis examines the role of international funding and their gender agendas in Lebanon. It contends that international aid agencies’ policies and strategies in Lebanon strengthen the sectarian hegemony of the ruling elite and impedes prospects for real women’s empowerment. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I – Introduction 1-13 1.1 – Situating the Thesis 1 1.2 – Research Questions 5 1.3 – Case Study: The Women’s Advocacy Community 8 1.4 – Methodology 10 1.5 – Outline of the Thesis 13 II – Civil Society and Women’s Movement in Comparative Perspectives 14-49 2.1 – Introduction 14 2.2 – Civic Engagement and Democratic Outcomes in Comparative Perspectives 15 2.2.1 – The Society-Centric Approach 15 2.2.2 – The State-Centric Approach 17 2.2.3 – The State-in-Society approach 21 2.3 – Civil Society in Lebanon: The Emerging Theoretical Framework 24 2.3.1 – Lebanese Civil Society: a Review of the Literature 24 2.3.2 – Civic Engagement and Democratic Outcomes in Strong Societies and Weak States 31 2.3.3 – Sectarianism and Women NGOs Hegemony and the ‘War of Position’ 34 2.3.4 – State Formation and the Construction of a Sectarian Patriarchal Hegemony 36 2.4 – Women NGOs: Is there a Movement? 41 2.4.1 – Aims and Activities 41 2.4.2 – The Institutional Structure of the Women’s NGOs 42 2.4.3 – Women NGOs and International Aid Agencies 44 2.5 – Conclusion 48 III – Post-War State-Society Relations and Gendered Laws in a Gridlock 50-77 3.1 – Introduction 50 3.2 – Post-War Sectarian Elite Strategies for ‘State-Building’ 51 3.2.1 – Elite Divisions and Post-War Politics of Confessionalism and Clientelism 51 3.2.2 – The Hegemonic Patriarchal Coalition: The Prince, the Kinsmen and the Clerk 54 3.3. – Gendered Laws and the Legal Status of Lebanese Women 59 3.3.1 – The Personal Status Laws: Legal Framework and Practices 63 3.3.2. – The Penal Code 67 vi 3.3.3. – Lebanese Women Give Birth but not their nationality 70 3.4 – The Limits of Women’s Organizing in Lebanon 73 3.5. – Conclusion 76 IV – The Polarization of Post-War Women’s Movement 78-137 4.1 – Introduction 78 4.2 – Funders, Fund Her: Donor Monies and Gender-Based Agendas 79 4.2.1 – Gender Mainstreaming: Funders Policy Texts 81 4.2.2 – Funding Trends and Grants Recipients 85 4.3 – Post-War Women’s Advocacy 93 4.3.1 – Ideology and Class: Associational Structures, Agendas and Social Capital 96 4.3.2– Empowering Women: Agendas, Beneficiaries and Donor Monies 110 4.3.3 – Social Capital: the Impossible Gramscian ‘War of Position’ 127 4.4 – Women’s Associations, State Institutions and the Sectarian Elites 131 4.4.1 –Corporatist Structures: The Sectarian Cartel Clients 132 4.4.2 – Grassroots: Between Pragmatism and Radicalism 134 4.5 – Conclusion 136 V – Negotiating Equal Citizenship in a Sectarian Context 138-170 5.1 – Introduction 138 5.2 – Negotiating Equal Citizenship: Mission Impossible 140 5.2.1 – Sectarian Politics, a Divided Women’s Movement and a Nationality Law in a Gridlock 140 5.2.2 – The Personal Status Laws and Child Custody 157 5.2.3 – Towards the Protection of Women from ‘Domestic Violence’ 161 5.3 – Conclusion 170 VI – Conclusions 171-180 6.1 – General Conclusions and Findings 171 6.2 – Theoretical Implications and Prospects for Gender Reforms 178 VII – Bibliography 181-198 VIII – Appendices 198-199 Appendix I List of Interviews 198 Appendix II Women NGOs, Type, Demands and Relationship with Sectarian Elites 199 vii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AWID : Association of Women in Development CFUWI : Committee For the Follow Up on Women’s Issues CRTD-A : Collective for Research and Training on Development – Action EU : European Union FBO : Faith Based Organizations GBV : Gender Based Violence IDC : Italian Development Cooperation Office LCW : Lebanese Council for Women LCRVAW : Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women LLWR : Lebanese League for Women’s Rights LWDG : Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering MEPI : Middle East Peace Initiative MOJ : Minister of Justice MOI : Minister of Interior NDI : National Democratic Institute NCLW : National Committee for Lebanese Women UN : United Nations USAID : United States Agency International Development viii ix CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Situating the Thesis With the collapse of communist and military regimes in the Soviet Union and Latin America, political theorists and analysts started to analyze the role of civil society in democratization processes. Since the 1990s, a wave of political and economic liberalization swept through the Arab world leading to the proliferation of rights-based non-governmental organizations. However this process did not last and the dynamics were reversed from encouraging, to cracking down against civil society organizations, to appropriating and containing them (Heydemann 2007). The resistance of the Arab world to change was not only a concern for many scholars looking for answers, it also became a major policy concern in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 (Anderson 2002). These attacks prompted a shift in American foreign policy from supporting authoritarianism in the Arab world to a new “forward strategy for freedom” (Anderson 2006: 203; Heydemann 2006: 155). Engineers of Bush’s democratization campaign argued that anti-American terrorism blossomed in the vacuum of a “freedom deficit”. Hence, the “foreword strategy for freedom”, they argued, “would drain the swamp for the frustration and rage that fed anti-American terrorism by waging wars or initiating socio-economic reforms” (Heydemann 2007: 155).
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