In some parts of Lebanon, and for some people, women are still seen as submissive to their husbands by default, and a good, obedient housewife would not withhold sex from her husband. One can trace back this mentality to religion as most religious books preach about a typically patriarchal family structure. The bible says " wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord" (Colossians 3:18) and the Qur'an says "Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so approach your tilth when or how ye will. (Qur'an 2:223) Which insinuates that wives must be sexually available to their husbands at all times. .
Seeing that Lebanon is still a sectarian country where most people preserve their religious values, this could explain why women are still seen today as a conquest that becomes subject to her husband once she is married. How does one even begin to fight this oppressive view of the woman that is possibly at the base of the toxic and inexcusable behavior that is abuse? Well, the law is a major first step. It's a way to change forcefully a common "behavior" if one may say, which could then play a role in altering the attitude of men towards women. Sometimes, you can't just wait for people to wake up and realize how wrong it is to treat women this way; you have to force them to adjust to new laws that forbid them to treat women this way. Again, there are plenty of issues when it comes to the application of this law. First of all, people still adopt a "none of my business" approach when they witness abuse. We need to raise awareness in our country when it comes to reporting abuse. We need to teach people that reporting abuse does not mean they are infringing on people's privacy in their homes and that in fact it is a moral obligation to report such things. Second of all, we need to raise awareness among women that it is in no way ever their fault when abuse takes place.
