BEIRUT: Earlier this week, Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai voiced support for compulsory civil marriage, saying that a law allowing optional civil marriage would violate the Constitution.

This outspoken support for civil marriage has drawn mixed reactions from religious authorities of some of the country’s other 17 sects.Speaking at a gathering of students in Bkirki Tuesday, Rai said that all Lebanese should have the right to marriage, regardless of their religious beliefs. “In Lebanon, we have Christians, Muslims and atheists ... and when we speak about an optional personal status law, we are violating Article 9 of the Constitution,” said Rai.

Such a weighty issue will require discussions between lawmakers and religious authorities, “but we should at least agree on optional civil marriage,” Michel Tueini, the secretary-general of the Orthodox Gathering, told The Daily Star.

Civil marriage cannot take place inside Lebanon, but the state recognizes civil marriages performed abroad. By some estimates, more than 2,000 Lebanese leave the country every year to marry. Many opt for civil marriage in order to marry someone of a different sect, as interfaith marriages cannot be performed by religious authorities here.

“It is a complete hypocrisy on the part of the Lebanese state ... [that] on the legal level it recognizes a couple married through a civil marriage, but the state doesn’t carry it out in its territory,” said Tueini, who welcomed Rai’s comments.

“The Orthodox sect has always been moderate and open to Rai’s proposals or any other proposal that would strengthen national unity,” Tueini added.

Tueini also said that religious authorities from all sects should agree on a comprehensive [civil marriage] law that would bring Lebanese closer. If civil marriage becomes compulsory, “individual sects in the country fear that they might lose their influence on their communities,” so Tueini added that optional civil marriage should be an “intermediary solution.”

In 1998, former President Elias Hrawi introduced a draft law that would allow Lebanese to choose between a civil or religious marriage. The Cabinet approved the draft law but the Parliament voted against it. The country’s religious leaders also opposed the proposal.

According to Tueini, 13 years on, the Lebanese are now ready to accept civil marriage. “Since people are fighting for it, and they are traveling to other countries to get married, it means people are ready. But the institutions to carry it out don’t exist,” Tueini explained.

Mohammad Sammak, secretary- general of the Committee for Islamic-Christian Dialogue, said a compulsory civil marriage law would significantly alter the structure of Lebanese society.

Each Lebanese sect has its own personal status law. Legal procedures related to marriage, inheritance, divorce and registration are handled differently in various religious courts.

“For instance, in a Sunni family, the son would inherit double the amount of what a girl would inherit from her deceased father, while in a Shiite family, they would receive equal inheritance,” Sammak explained.

In creating a “dominant law” for personal status matters, Sammak said that a “civil marriage law would break the distinction between different religious sects.”

“Like the law drafted in [former President Elias] Hrawi’s term, such a law would fail to pass if introduced without a prior agreement with the religious authorities,” continued Sammak. “But Rai’s civil marriage proposal is one step on the right path for further discussion on the matter.”

Some don’t believe such significant change is possible. Sheikh Khaldoun Oraymet, a Sunni Muslim scholar at Dar al-Fatwa, said that “it’s not only very difficult to pass such a law, but it is ... rejected by Islamic law.” He said there are other ways to strengthen national unity.

“In Islam we don’t have a problem in allowing our men to marry Christian women. But we cannot accept our women marrying Christian men because they do not believe in Islam,” Oraymet said, adding that men are considered to be more powerful than women, so they have the ability to convince their wives to convert.

Disagreeing with Rai’s proposal, Oraymet said that debate over civil marriage is a complicated one. “If by civil marriage he means mixing different Lebanese sects together ... this conflicts with Islamic law,” said Oraymet.

Shiite Muslim cleric Sayyed Ali Fadlallah said it was natural for sects to want to keep their members from integrating in order to protect them. “People are free to choose their partners, but we prefer that they remain within our traditions,” said Fadlallah, adding that the civil marriage question is part of larger social issues.

According to Fadlallah, civil marriage would cause disintegration in family ties. “Having civil marriage would cause family problems in Lebanese society, and we are not willing to trigger these problems.”

Fadlallah also said that scholars and lawmakers should try to explain whether a compulsory civil marriage law would solve problems or create them. “Such an issue should be discussed thoroughly, but we do not support it,” Fadlallah said.