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Results for child marriage (lebanon) (occupied palestinian ter

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Author: Ouis, Pernilla

Title: Gender-Based Sexual Violence Against Teenage Girls in the Middle East: A comparative situational analysis of honour violence, early marriages and sexual abuse in Lebanon, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Yemen

Summary: Working for the rights of girls in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been Save the Children Sweden’s priority for the last years. Teenage girls in the region are predominantly exposed to severe violations of their rights according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The present project was initiated in order to produce a situation analysis on girls exposure to gender-based sexual violence in the region, as a continuation of work previously initiated about the struggle for girls rights in the MENA region. Examining the situation of teenage girls from a child rights perspective is an innovative and constructive approach that is perhaps a more successful strategy to deal with the issue than using the regular gender perspective. Teenage girls are children, and as such, are entitled to special rights. The project focused on three particular types of sexual violence against teenage girls in Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Yemen: honor violence, early marriages, and sexual abuse. The abovementioned forms of violence are related to sexuality, while only the two latter forms are sexual activities as such. Still, we categorize all three forms as sexual violence. Furthermore, since we are analysing these forms of sexual violence from a gender perspective, we can conclude that this violence is gender-based. Although boys are also victims in honourcultures, in the sense that they somehow are forced to “guard” and commit acts of violence against their sisters, we believe that the victims are primarily girls. We are concerned that girls are the most marginalised group in the region because they often face discrimination as females and as children. To focus too much on boys and other victims in honour cultures such as homosexuals, we believe would be another betrayal against the girls in the region. It should be stated that sexual violence against children exists in all societies around the world and is not a particular problem restricted to the MENA region. However, each society has its particular cultural-logic and mechanisms in the field of sexuality that have to be discerned and acknowledged. Some trends are general and almost universal, such as patriarchalism, as well as the shame and trauma associated to the victim of sexual abuse. This study emphasises analyzing in-depth gender-based sexual-abuse in the MENA region, rather than comparing the different problems between various cultures regarding this issue. Had our ambition been to compare various cultural traits and the problems of sexual violence between societies we would have had to conduct this study in a different way. Sexuality is often a controversial and charged topic touching the inner and existential aspects of our identity. Therefore, we are aware of the sensitivity of the subjects addressed in this report that include, gender roles, family building, religious morality, identity and kinship relations. Since this is a thorough analysis some of these aspects are criticized in the way that they are exploited for legitimising sexual abuse, for instance, Islam might be used to legitimise honour violence. By acknowledging this in our study, we do not say however, that Islam accepts honour-violence. Close kinship relations might be used as a method of psychological pressure on girls to marry early. Discussing this is not a criticism of kinship societies but only on some aspects of its practice.

Details: Beirut, Lebanon: Save the Children Sweden, 2007. 173p

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 13, 2012 at http://www.crin.org/docs/Gender_based_sexual_Violence.pdf

Year: 2007

Country: International

URL: http://www.crin.org/docs/Gender_based_sexual_Violence.pdf

Shelf Number: 126335

Keywords:
Child Marriage (Lebanon) (Occupied Palestinian Ter
Gender-Based Violence (Lebanon) (Occupied Palestin
Honor Related Violence (Lebanon) (Occupied Palesti
Sexual Violence
Violence Against Women, Adolescents