The Closing Ceremony of the Art and Expression National Contest on Child Marriage

The Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering – RDFL launched the results of the national expression and art competition for school and university students on child marriage in Lebanon in a closing ceremony at the Lawyer’s House in Beirut. This ceremony was organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and supported by IM Swedish. The Ministry of Education and Higher Education – MEHE’s representative Hilda El-Khoury, representatives of a number of MPs and ministers, Captain Nisreen Shedid representing the General Director of the Lebanese General Security, representative of the European Ambassador to Lebanon Christina Lassen, embassies’ representatives, members of the contest’s jury, artists, media, representatives of international and non-governmental organizations, directors and professors of schools and universities and students participating in the competition had attended the ceremony.

The event was opened with the national anthem and was introduced by the master of the ceremony, Milad Hadchiti, followed by the speech of the Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering – RDFL stated by the Head of Communications and Campaigning at the organisation, Hayat Mirshad. Mirshad, who welcomed the audience, thanked the supporters, and focused on the government and Lebanese Parliament’s inaction to endorse a civil law that protects children from early marriage. She also stressed that Lebanon is not committing to International Conventions, like CEDAW and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, due to the control of discriminatory sectarian personal status laws on the rights of girls and women. She also talked about RDFL’s work on the issue of child marriage for 3 years to advocate towards the endorsement of the law that aims to set the age of marriage in Lebanon by 18 years old.

RDFL’s speech was followed by MEHE’s speech which was stated by the Manager of the Monitoring and Guidance section, Hilda Khoury. She congratulated the winning students and praised RDFL’s efforts, and she mentioned the minister’s interest in the cause where he considers that child marriage is “a delicate subject that remains controversial in some social circles and needs the concerted efforts of education, media, civil society and religious institutions to stop it.”

This competition comes within the belief of RDFL in the true role of students in changing and spreading awareness as they are the new generation and partners in the struggle that is sought by the community to establish full gender equality and achieve social, economic, cultural and political justice for women. And accordingly, RDFL team has distributed the Art and Expression Contest files on Child Marriage to more than 8,000 students in Mount Lebanon, Beirut, Bekaa, Baalbek, Nabatieh, South, Tripoli and Akkar in private and public schools and universities, and received 5000 products from students.

The jury consisted of prominent names of creative and well trusted people from various backgrounds and fields, and they worked on evaluating the students’ products and choosing the winners based on standards like ability to deliver the message behind the product and creativity in accordance to age, abilities, and resources of each student. The jury consisted of the TV presenter Rabiaa Al Zayat, Former Deputy Ghassan Mkhayber, Actress Carmen Lebos, the general manager of MEHE Fady Yarak, Poet Nizar Francis, President of Abaad Organisation Ghida Anani, the President of the National Commission of the Lebanese Women Claudine Aoun, and the actress and drama therapist Zeina Daccache.

At the end, the results were announced, and the certificates and awards were given to the winners. In addition, the appreciation certificates were given to the schools who participated. Each winner presented his/her product in front of the audience, where the awards were distributed on 10 winners from two stages: intermediate, and secondary and university. The winners were chosen as following: Musical Poetry Category, Arabic Poetry Category, Foreign Poetry Category, Video Category, Best Rap Song Category, and Best Artistic Portrait.