BEIRUT: The poster reads, "S. J. killed her own baby to save her marriage. The Lebanese law supports her." The poster is part of the exhibition "Sexuality and Politics" in Lebanon, which the American University of Beirut's Human Rights and Peace Club has put together, covering the topics of cohabitation, civil marriage, homosexuality, adultery, pre-marital sex, virginity, and public display of affection.

At the entrance of the red tent, set up between West Hall and Jessup Hall, a sign warns that you must be over 18 to enter. Inside, the Human Rights and Peace club documents nothing more than what law and society demand concerning these issues.

Below the poster about S. J., they explain that killing a baby resulting from a relationship out of wedlock or as the law phrases it "a female who kills her offspring to save her honor" is treated more leniently by the law. It is one of the examples the club has chosen to show how the state regulates sexual behavior.

In the section about homosexuality, you can read about Hizbullah militias acting as police in 2001 when they arrested five allegedly gay people. The court wrote, "the people were delivered by Hizbullah security personnel."

"If this becomes the norm, Lebanon has a problem," says Marc Daou, from the Human Rights and Peace Club. The club had initially planned to do something about homosexuality, he says, but realized in the process that the political and societal system regulates all types of sexuality and tries to suppress only one type. Pointing to the different topics, each having a section at the exhibit, he says: "Actually out of all these, only cohabitation and civil marriage are accepted by the law, but they are refused by society."

While civil marriage does not exist in Lebanon, the state does accept marriage documents from elsewhere. In the case of cohabitation, society even invents a law that doesn't exist: "Everybody thinks it is not allowed, but in fact it is," Daou says.
 

At a comment board, most people express their approval. "Finally it appears that people will start to open up to such issues," somebody wrote. Yet, not all visitors agree, even if they are hesitant to say so.

"It's a nice critical topic," says Bahjat, an agriculture student. "But I don't think it can work in Lebanon."

When asked if he wants it to work, he ponders, "No, not everything." After a second look at the topics, he adds, "Actually, I don't agree with any of this."

At a discussion with Joumana Merhi from the Democratic Women's Group, Nizar Saghieh from Hurriyat Khasa (Private Liberties) and Georges Azzi from Helem, a group fighting for lesbian and gay rights, which the club had organized on Wednesday, people mainly wanted to know how they could help change society.

"Shouldn't we work on attitudes first before we change the law?" a young man asked Azzi who had described the societal situation starting with the fact that Arabic does not even have a word that means "gay," and how the law does not allow "unnatural intercourse," a legal term referring to homosexual acts.

Merhi explained that, whether fighting for women's or for gays', rights tackling the law "was only one campaign." Others needed to follow. According to Saghieh, not only attitudes, but the whole sectarian system needed to change, as it was the basis of all laws repressing sexuality, since it pigeonholes people into sects and robs them of their individuality.