The Women’s Studies Network “Sun” in partnership with the Lebanese Sociology Association and in cooperation with Basma International Group, the Institute of Social Sciences at the Lebanese University, and the Center for Women’s Studies at the University of Jordan,The Laboratory of Religion and Society at the University of Algiers 2, in the presence of scientific institutions and organizations active in women’s issues members of the Network, is the first seminar in the series of seminars of the “Gender Theses” program. The seminar included a discussion of the book “Lebanese Women in the Judiciary: Strengthening the Prevailing and Neglecting the Margins” by Dr. Azza Sharara Beydoun and Dr. Azza Hajj Suleiman.
The importance of the book lies in its focus on a current issue related to the challenges facing women in participating in public affairs, especially women’s participation in the judiciary, which is still limited. The researchers started from a basic question: “Has the Lebanese judiciary witnessed judicial practices for female judges distinct from those adopted by judges, despite the fact that the percentage of Lebanese women in the judiciary is equal to the percentage of Lebanese men in the same corps? Has the critical mass formed in the judiciary automatically brought about a change in the attitudes and practices of male and female judges?
According to the two researchers, this study was an implicit attempt to examine a demand that accompanied the Lebanese feminist struggle since its renaissance in the mid-nineties, regarding the legislator’s call for the adoption of a “women’s quota” in the electoral law, i.e., the adoption of interim positive discrimination in order to achieve equality between the numbers of women and men in decision-making positions, in representative and executive positions, specifically.
For her part, Mary Rose Zalzal, a university professor, commented on the importance of the book, considering that it is a new book with its subject and treatment, especially as it is the result of a legal and social approach together, and includes an unusual quantitative and qualitative statistical study.Zalzal did not agree with the statement that women in Lebanon have achieved gender equality without the intervention of the legislative authority, the executive authority, or even the purposeful civil feminist movement, and considered it a statement that does not do justice to women and carry them more than they bear.She considered that male judges are not fair, because the Lebanese judicial system is a hierarchical system, which at the top of the pyramid is the decision-maker, and Zalzal explained that the problem is in the system as a whole, stressing that the problem of women in the judiciary is greater than what is raised.
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