The Legal and Social Interactions between Religious Sectarianism and Lebanese National Secular Identity in the Field of Civil Marriage

This paper focuses on legal and social interactions arising from several attempts performed since 2012 by civil society groups, NGO members and legal experts to enact state legislation allowing civil marriages in Lebanon as a means of reducing religious sectarianism and reinforcing national identity. Following the very first secular marriage, celebrated in the country by two Lebanese citizens in 2012, the paper analyses whether — and the extent to which — such attempts have been successful in legally introducing non-religious marriages. Furthermore, it will examine the political and social consequences of those attempts, in the context of the general field of relations between the State and the religious sects. In fact, Lebanese religious authorities have described civil marriages as a rupture of their sects' 'endogamy' and as a weakening of the sectarian system, that is, by threatening the multi-confessional system as a whole. At the same time, married couples consider their civil marriages to be a tool for pressuring state authorities into passing civil law, thus strengthening a national Lebanese identity above any religious affiliation.