Lebanese women fight back against sexual harassment with new campaign

While in many ways Lebanon is a leader in the region when it comes to women’s rights, there is no legislation specifically outlawing sexual harassment on the books whatsoever

A powerful video in which a woman confronts comments and stares to more obvious forms of assault such as sexualised touching has been viewed on different social media platforms thousands of times (Mesh Basita)

A new campaign has launched in Lebanon to raise awareness that sexual harassment is not something that should be shrugged off or dismissed, but called out and punished.

Mesh Basita, or “It’s not OK”, is a six-week-long social media campaign from the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the newly created Women’s Affairs Ministry designed to raise awareness of the catcalling, unwanted attention and touching that women receive on a daily basis.

While in many ways Lebanon is a leader in the region when it comes to women’s rights, there is always more work to be done: currently, there is no legislation specifically outlawing sexual harassment on the books whatsoever, even in the workplace or public spaces.

A new bill criminalising sexual harassment presented by the minister for women’s affairs, Jean Ogasapian was approved when put before the cabinet earlier this year, but parliament is yet to act on it – a not uncommon problem in Lebanon’s political gridlock.

Mesh Basita has stepped in to fill the gap, Heather Jaber, communications coordinator for AUB’s KIP Project on Gender and Sexuality, which is behind the project, told The Independent.

Over July and August members of the public have been invited to share their thoughts, photos and videos on why sexual harassment is “not OK” using the “mesh_basita” hashtag, and posters and billboards have sprung up around Beirut.

A powerful video in which a woman confronts comments and stares to more obvious forms of assault such as sexualised touching has been viewed on different social media platforms thousands of times.

A fictional video from popular fashion blogger Ghina Ghandour showing her being assaulted in a lift also went viral.

“If it were your mother, sister, wife, daughter or granddaughter then it wouldn’t have been OK,” Ms Ghandour wrote in the accompanying post.

“We are subjected to this... and we need to mobilise in order to combat these kinds of crimes.”

“What we’re doing is highlighting something that doesn’t get talked about in Lebanon very often, and it’s been a positive response – many people say they feel relieved they are finally able to talk about it,” Ms Jaber said.

“What it’s also shown is that there is a lot of problematic discourse around sexual harassment – that it’s nothing, or something to joke about. What a woman is wearing, whether she’s alone, what time of day it is are also issues that have come up. People have reached out to express they think it’s important to change attitudes to that as well.”

As well as the Mesh Basita campaign, over the last few months AUB’s KIP Project has organised a two-day conference and training workshops to raise public awareness of what constitutes harassment, and ways it can be dealt with.

Until legislators take action on this issue, Ms Jaber continued, civil society and other organisations will continue to push for change.

“There’s been a lot of energy generated by Mesh Basita,” Ms Jaber said. “We are capitalising on that and will continue to do so until the law is changed.”