Laure Moghaizel

After Lebanese independence from the French Mandate in 1943, initial advances in Lebanese women's rights were made by two major advocacy groups, the Lebanese Women Union and the Christian Women's Solidarity Association.[2]  These two bodies merged in 1952 under the Lebanese Council of Women.[2] Moghaizel herself was a member of the Christian Women's Solidarity Association, and remained a part of the later Council.[2] During the Lebanese Civil War, however, the Council's activist agenda stagnated as it set aside its ambitions for women's civil rights in order to immediately provide welfare services to war victims.[4]  Moghaizel maintained her commitment to the public life and wartime preservation of human rights through several communal efforts.

The beginning act of this being the Peace March on the 6th of March with Beirut University College (now L.A.U)  where she alongside twenty two people from various countries formed a movement to support the Labour Union demonstrations, in addition to organizing a sit down in front of parliament.[3] The movement initiated another campaign called “The Document of Civil Peace” which collected 70,000 signatures from Lebanese citizens who were against the war. Whilst this might not have helped stop the war, she recalls “it helped us overcome the war,” in her interview in 1995 interview with Hania Osserian (Osseiran, 2016).[3] Women were not largely involved in the hostilities during the war, not because they were less violent but due to their absence in both government and the militias. As a result, women like Laure Moghaizel rose sought alternative methods of contributing to the rebuilding of Lebanon. Therefore, it is in this period of civil war that Moghaizel rose to prominence mostly for her legal activities and her vicious women rights advocacy.[4]

Moghaizel was considered distinct from other contemporary activists due to the way she undertook the advancement of women's rights as part of a broader campaign to strengthen the institution of human rights in Lebanon.[2]  As described by author Rita Stephan, “Laure Moghaizel considered women’s rights as a matter of equal and fair treatment for all citizens”.[4]   She specifically took five approaches in fitting women's issues into a framework of general legal rights. These included: political rights, legal competence, economic and social rights, rights under punitive law, and rights under personal status law.[2]  Capitalizing on her law degree in taking this approach, her work granted women new legal rights outside of the traditional issue areas of public visibility and civic rights that were prioritized by earlier women's groups.[2]

In 1985, Moghaizel was central in the establishment the Lebanese Association for Human Rights.[4]  This was accomplished in collaboration with her husband, Joseph Moghaizel, also a lawyer.  As legal representatives of the Association, the Moghaizel couple advanced a human rights agenda which paid special attention to the needs of Lebanese women in both public and private contexts.[2] The couple worked through the courts to reform “important but often-overlooked laws that impacted women’s lives”.[2]  These laws ranged from rights in business transactions to social service privileges.[2] (See below for full list of accomplishments)

Moghaizel's later work extended beyond national laws impacting women to strengthen the enforcement of international treaties in Lebanon.  In 1990, she worked closely with the Lebanese Association for Human Rights in pressuring the government to adopt a constitutional clause that re-committed the nation to upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which Lebanon technically adopted in 1948.[2]  The clause set a key precedent in Lebanon that international humanitarian standards must supersede national law[2]. This precedent paved the way later when the Lebanese government adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1996. Effectively an international doctrine of women's rights, CEDAW had been signed on to by 114 countries, including five Arab states, by the time it gained momentum in Lebanon.[6]  Lobbying for the adoption of CEDAW in Lebanon is considered another one of the Moghaizel couple's biggest contributions to human and women's rights.[6]

The following list contains a chronology of advancements in Lebanese women's rights associated with the work of Laure Moghaizel:

• 1983 Right to legally sell and purchase contraceptives
• 1987 Entitlement to retirement benefits, and the establishment of an equal institutional retirement age at 64 for men and women (previously women were required to retire five years before their male counterparts, at ages 55 and 60 respectfully) Stephan, 116, 123
• 1990 Constitutional clause strengthening Lebanese commitment to upholding the UDHR
• 1993 Right of women to legally witness in real-estate contracts
• 1994 Right for married women to practice commerce and/or open a business without the consent of their husbands (Stephan 116, 123)
• 1995 Right of women in the diplomatic field to maintain Lebanese citizenship and civic jobs in the event of marrying a foreign husband (Stephan 116)
• 1995 Right of women (including married women) to obtain life insurance (Stephan, 124)
• 1996 Lebanese adoption of CEDAW

[7]

Laure Moghaizel met her husband Joseph when they were both students at Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. They met during a national students’ demonstration, foreshadowing of the beginning of their life and career together. Laure and Joseph, both Christian Catholics, married in 1953. They had 5 children: Nada, Fadi, Jana, Amal and Naji, who describe her as being “a very devoted mother”.[5] In an interview, Laure explained how much she enjoyed coming home from the office, “...[taking] off [her] suit and slipping into some overalls, [playing] with the children, [giving] them their baths, and [helping] them with their homework” (LaTeef 206).[8] Her daughter, Nada Moghaizel Nasr describes her mother as being someone who did it all: she was simultaneously a homemaker that cooked, cleaned and raised children, and an exceedingly successful advocate against social and political inequality.[4]

Moghaizel created a home environment for her family where open dialogue was encouraged and opinions were respected. One of her daughters, Nada, explained the importance for Laure that her children were introduced to literature and the arts, so she often read them poetry before bed.[5] Her youngest son, Naji Moghaizel, was born with Down syndrome, and is one of the reasons why Laure and Joseph became involved in movements to support the disabled.[4]

One of her daughters, Jana Moghaizel, was educated as a linguist at the Sorbonne and was a published author. She came to visit her parents in Beirut for Christmas in 1986 during the Lebanese Civil War.[3] She was one of the many innocent victims killed during this conflict. Jana, aged 28, was killed on the stairs of her parents’ apartment building, located on the demarcation line between East and West Beirut. Following their daughter's death, the Moghaizels concentrated themselves more deeply on their work. Laure once said that she “[could] not forgive anyone who participated in the war” and that the “Lebanese people killed our own children”.[3] Moghaizel wore black for the duration of her life to mourn Jana's death.[3]

Joseph Moghaizel passed in 1995 after 42 years of marriage, widowing Laure. Following a two-year period of illness, Laure passed in her home on May 25, 1997. She was 68 years old.[3]