Campaign for Civil Marriage

SMN 1, May 2, 2010

Civil rights activists in Syria are using Facebook to promote the cause of civil marriage in the country.

In a short time, the group has gathered more than 450 members in support of allowing civil marriage in Syria.

Although Syrian society is multi-confessional, civil unions between members of different religious groups is not allowed. Religious marriages are the only form of legal matrimony.

Those wishing to tie the knot in a civil way have to marry outside Syria, but then, the marriage is not recognised once they return.

Civil society in Syria has been calling for years for a new civil personal status code that would defer matters of marriage, custody, divorce and inheritance to local authorities and not religious bodies.

The creator of the Facebook group called on participants to advance the cause of civil marriage by suggesting plans of action.

One post said that civil marriage was the “best solution” to end the division of citizens from different confessional backgrounds.

One member said he lost his first love because she was from a different faith. Another proclaimed, “Love knows no religion or sect… People should be left to love as they want and anybody they want.”

“We want to live and love…without repression, without crimes of honour,” another member said.

Under Syrian law, men who catch a female family member engaging in adultery or other “illegitimate sexual acts”, or even in a “suspicious state”, are exempted from the standard punishments for murder and assault. Those convicted of murders deemed to be so-called honour killings face only six months to two years in prison.

One of the members of the group, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told SMN by email that honour crimes were in many cases committed against women who marry from outside their sects.

He said that he chose to convert but still had to wait for many years before both families accepted that they could marry.

He added that most couples of mixed faith had only one choice: to leave the country so as to escape social stigma.

This is the second Facebook group to call for civil marriage in Syria. The first was created three years ago and groups 2,250 members.