Couple's activism in Lebanon: The legacy of Laure Moghaizel

SynopsisFor over half a century Laure Moghaizel struggled alongside her husband, Joseph, to include equal rights for women in Lebanese law and to advocate for women's participation in politics. Considering violations of women's rights to be integral to the broader plight of human rights violations in Lebanon, they successfully brought pressure on the Lebanese government to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1996. Their example helps us to envision one answer to the general questions with which this article is concerned: how can women exercise their agency while still being embedded in the family structure rather than operating independently of its influence? Can social capital gained from family membership be used to foster women's agency? How can a husband work side by side with his wife to advance women's rights? What can we learn, from the point of view of feminist practice, from a couple who retained the trappings of a traditional marriage and yet devoted themselves to the struggle for women's equality? Remaining in dialogue with liberal and radical feminist literature and the literature on women's activism, while recognizing the salience of cultural differences, this article aspires to answer those questions. Using the writings of Laure Moghaizel, interview data from her close associates, and relevant secondary data, I examine multiple aspects of Laure' activism: the social structures that influenced her activism; her contributions to women's rights; her partnership with her husband; and their approach to framing couples' activism for women's human rights. Based on Laure's own success and her lasting influence in Lebanon and throughout the region, I argue that, contrary to the critique of the nuclear family as an institution of patriarchal oppression, the institutions of marriage and family in Middle Eastern cultures can contribute to the success of feminism.