Kataeb leader Samy Gemayel on Friday deemed women’s participation in politics as a priority, saying that the Kataeb party has submitted several laws to achieve women’s political empowerment.

“Our party has submitted laws to preserve women’s rights and empowerment in politics such as the honor crime that was presented to the Parliament and approved in 2011. Additionally, the Article 562 of the Penal Code, which reduces the penalty for anyone who commits an honor crime that was abolished. This law was a disgrace to the Lebanese legislation. We also have submitted a proposal to adopt a law to protect the individual from domestic violence that could be both moral and physical,”  Gemayel said during a seminar entitled “Towards a Civil Law for Personal Status” held at the party’s headquarters in Saifi.

“We are the only party in Lebanon that has adopted a 30% women quota in the Political Bureau. All the electoral laws that we submitted to the Parliament would allow 30% of the candidates in municipal and parliamentary elections to be women,” he noted.

“We should encourage women to engage in public affairs due to the mentality of the Eastern society that prevents them from decision-making and real participation in political life. We are trying to enhance women’s role in the society, and according to several experiences, women are seen to have less tolerance for corruption than men,” he stressed.

Gemayel also said that the Kataeb party has submitted a bill proposing voluntary civil marriage in 1969, affirming that the party was proactive in this matter.

“We,as the Kataeb party, based on the human right to freedom of belief, consider that time has come to be responsible and to move our country to a better place where the citizen has the freedom to make his own decisions,” he concluded.

For her part, Head of Women's Affairs Department at the Kataeb party Josephine Kodeissy on Friday pointed out that Laws and constitutions were made to organize the affaires of states and individuals ,saying that these laws stipulated rights and duties and identified punishments.