Lebanese women stall cars to protest against exclusion of female ministers

PanARMENIAN.Net - Traffic stalled and offices stood still for five minutes in Beirut on Tuesday, June 28, as women’s rights activists protested against the exclusion of female ministers in the new Cabinet, The Daily Star reported.

Positioning themselves as roadblocks in Downtown, Hamra and Sassine Square, the groups of several dozen demonstrators, part of the Lebanese Women’s Movement (LWM), held banners saying “A Cabinet without women is going backward.”

They also handed out flyers to passersby and waiting vehicles, asking them to “stop working, stop your cars and honk your horns for five minutes … for not appointing female ministers in the Cabinet.”

“We have been working on this cause for a long time and were so happy to see women deputies, even if they were just a small percentage,” said protester Aida Markarian, president of the Armenian General Benevolence Unit. “The women have proved that they can work, manage and excel at their posts so there is no excuse for them not to be included.”

The LCW consists of 160 concerned associations from across Lebanon, and was a driving force behind women gaining the right to vote and run for elections in 1953 and has also campaigned for Lebanon to drop reservations to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women convention since 1996.