Kholoud Sukkarieh and Nidal Darwish of Lebanon have been blazing quite a trail towards equality for the Lebanese. Not only were they the first couple to ever obtain a civil marriage license back in January 2013 but now they have just given birth to the first child in modern Lebanese history to not have a sect.
Background:
Lebanon’s political foundation has been built upon the identification of different religious sects. In an attempt to avoid any sectarian conflicts the government is set up as a confessionalist system. Through the identification of people’s sect on birth records, the government is divided by 18 different representational groups based upon the population. This means that the President is always a Maronite Christian, Prime Minister-Sunni Muslim, Parliament Speaker-Shia Muslim, etc.
Ever since this this was put in place (and based on a 1930’s census) there has been considerable backlash about the inequalities and prejudices that this creates.
Impact:
Following the birth of their son Ghadi, Kholoud Sukkarieh and Nidal Darwish were greeted with many opinions from both sides of the spectrum. The most prominent well wisher was current Lebanese President who congratulated the couple as well as all Lebanese for the birth of a sect-less child.
Those who opposed the couple’s choice to not register their child as a certain religion believed that the child would be lost growing up without a certain faith.
Here is Kholoud Sukkarieh’s interview with Al Jazeera regarding her and her husband’s choice.
Overall, this is a huge step towards equality for all in Lebanon, the country has for years struggled with this division of their population in both politics and economics. A small step like this will have majority implications in the coming years especially as Ghadi and others born without a specified sect become political involved.
-Kelly Kirk
Underneath the Kaffiyeh 