In more traditional and earlier times in Lebanon, marriages were arranged. This is not so much true in the present day for Lebanon. A reason for this was because marriage was more about recognizing adult status and bringing together interests, but the main concept behind marriage was not that of romantic attachments. I think that this way of viewing marriage puts a lot of stress on making others happy as opposed to taking care of ones self as well. A woman’s role in marriage was to bear son’s and attain status. I can’t help but imagine how much stress must come from being expected to bear son’s. I believe that this idea alone makes the male gender seem superior from birth. There is beauty in both genders and they should be loved and treated equally. Consequently, for men they marry to have sons that will continue their lineage and continue taking care of their land while bringing honor to their family (Ghazi).
When it comes to religion, Christian and Muslim villages stress marrying within the village. With that being said, it is common to marry close relatives/first cousins which expands family resources and keeps the religion the same (Ghazi). This is especially common in religions such as Druze, where people cannot convert into or leave the religion so the community is rather small to begin with. The marriage age varies depending on each village for some stress that their women marry young and others have men that marry in their late thirties. Since a woman’s role in the Lebanese society is very heavily stressed on bearing sons a women without children or without sons is seen in a sympathetic light (Ghazi).
In terms of the political element of Lebanon’s culture women are still inferior to men in this aspect. In 1952 women may have won the right to vote and participate in national elections but their political participation is still extremely minimal since (Khalife). It seems to me that women in Lebanon are easily silenced and follow along with what has been done for years. In Lebanon, the political culture is male dominated and family affiliated. Also, in 1970’s women were allowed to play a more active role in the work force because there was a shortage in manpower due to an intense migration of men to Persian Gulf countries (Khalife). I think that it should not take a shortage of men for people to realize that they can utilize women and give them similar opportunities in the work force as men.
Sources:
Collelo, T. (n.d.). Lebanon - Gender Roles. Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://countrystudies.us/lebanon/60.htm
Ghazi, A. (n.d.). Lebanon's Culture: Society. Retrieved October 12, 2015, from http://www.ghazi.de/society.html
Khalife, N. (2009, July 2). A Woman's Place, in Lebanon. Retrieved October 12, 2015, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2009/07/02/womans-place-lebanon