A campaigner in Beirut said on Friday that Lebanese Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Abaad has launched a rap-style video that aims to protect Arab women from sexual violence.
The footage shows young women walking through the streets of Beirut and singing a song that is addressed to women viewers who have suffered rape and rejection in the country’s male-dominated society.
“I’m the girl whose body and rights were raped.
“My honour is not my body and my body is not your honour,’’ the girls sing in the video released this week by the NGO.
The group’s founder and director Ghida Anani told DPA “survivors of sexual violence are accused, blamed and shamed, while perpetrators are exonerated.
“The persistent oppression and discrimination that the patriarchal system exerts negatively affect the fulfilment of women’s rights and their effective participation in all areas of life.’’
The video aims to reach women in Lebanon and other Arab countries where sexual violence is believed to be rife.
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Anani said Abaad seeks not only to eliminate behaviour that abuses women but also to challenge the ways that women are underestimated and to press for discriminatory laws to be changed.
“The launch of this video is a continuation of our campaigns in the past few years, by means of which we have succeeded in repealing the infamous rape-marriage law.
“In Lebanon, the law allowed rapists to avoid prosecution if they marry their victims.
“The message that we want to convey is clear: It is high time for women to have full control over decisions affecting their own lives and in the development of their societies.’’
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