Charbel to Sign Civil Marriage License despite his Opposition to it

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel will sign a civil marriage license that has been referred to him in an administrative procedure, despite the lack of a law that legalizes these forms of unions in Lebanon, reported al-Liwaa newspaper Saturday.

He told the daily that he “does not advocate” civil marriage in line with the Maronite Patriarchate and other religious authorities' positions.

“Legalizing civil marriage requires a law or the formation of a new sect,” he added.

“My signing of the civil marriage license is an administrative procedure,” Charbel stated.

The Lebanese Supreme Council in the Ministry of Justice took an unanimous decision on Monday to consider legal all civil marriages conducted in Lebanon by people that do not have any religious affiliation.

Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi hailed to An Nahar daily Saturday the Council's decision, hoping that the interior minister would advocate it.

Legalizing civil marriage in Lebanon has sparked debate among the country's political and religious authorities with President Michel Suleiman advocating it and Prime Minister Najib Miqati and Grand Mufti Sheikh Mohammed Rashid Qabbani rejecting it.

Qabbani issued a fatwa against moves to legalize civil marriages inside the country, where couples of different faiths have to travel abroad to tie the knot.

Kholoud Succariyeh and Nidal Darwish announced in January they had wed as a secular couple by having their religious sects legally struck from their family registers under an article dating from the 1936 French mandate.

Suleiman has since lobbied for a civil marriage law as a "very important step in eradicating sectarianism and solidifying national unity."