Lebanon’s society holds an ingrained taboo belief that raped women are dishonorable, reflected in an obsolete law with absurdly minimal rape sentences.

ABAAD’s campaign set out to change society’s prejudiced mentality towards survivors by breaking the silence around rape and amending the law to significantly increase rape sentences.

With disruptive communication and unconventional influencer partnerships, we explicitly enlisted Members of Parliament from 8 out of 10 parties who committed to increasing the rape sentence – a step closer to earning justice for raped women in Lebanon.

Rape is a serious crime deserving a serious sentence.

In Lebanon, however, this wasn't the case.

Chapter 7 of Lebanon’s Penal code deals with sexual violence crimes, but only sentences rapists to 0-5 years of jail time, reducing rape’s severity to that of other crimes such as robbery or signing wrong checks.

Titled “Crimes That Affect Honor”, Chapter 7 upholds society’s taboo of rape being a matter of a famil'y “honor” rather than a serious crime.

Petrified of being shamed by their families, and without a law to protect them, 60% of rape survivors don’t dare speak up nor seek justice.

As a Lebanese women’s rights NGO, ABAAD sought support to change the law, increase the crime sentence for rape.

Abaad needed to break the silence and encourage survivors to air their “dirty laundry” - sparking its subversive advocacy campaign during the UN’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.

The belief that rape survivors are to blame has become intrinsically woven into Lebanese society’s DNA, and that women’s bodies are merely carriers of honor and dignity.

Survivors are told not to air their “dirty laundry”, a common expression in Lebanon meaning they should stay silent about “shameful matters” like rape, so they don’t tarnish their families’ reputations.

In addition to a society that doesn’t offer survivors a "safe" space, even Chapter 7 of Lebanon’s Penal Code - which deals with sexual violence crimes - doesn’t provide true, legal protection.

Titled “Crimes That Affect Honor”, Chapter 7 embraces the same outrageously outdated taboo embraced by patriarchal institutions: the notion that rape is a “crime of honor” rather than a serious crime that needs a serious sentence.

Cursed with a law that sides with rapists (and not survivors), this injustice needed to be challenged, broken, and changed.

Women in Lebanon shouldn’t be at the mercy of laws that shift the blame of shame on survivors rather than on rapists. These laws are grotesque, unimaginable and unfortunately, real. A reality we set to change in the most politically correct and socially acceptable manner by amending Chapter 7 of the Lebanese penal code.

"Raped bodies are not dirty laundry."

To pressure lawmakers into increasing rape crime sentences, ABAAD’s advocacy campaign demanded they treat rape as a serious crime that needs a serious sentence.

But if it was treated and seen as dirty laundry that shouldn't be displayed or washed in public, then we needed to break the deafening silence around rape.

We wanted to abolish the belief that rape is the survivor’s fault.

And we wanted to stop the societal taboo that rape stories are too shameful to be spoken about.

We set out to bring this idea to life through partnering with 2 key female influencers in Lebanon who were known for being vocal about inequalities and prejudices in what tends to be a patriarchal society.

“Don’t air your dirty laundry”

It's a colloquial Lebanese expression that means:

“Don’t speak of shameful matters, particularly, of rape.”

In 2022, ABAAD conducted a study that found 60% of women who are raped don’t report it because of honor.

And without a law that adequately punishes rapists, rape survivors are left with nowhere to turn for protection or justice.

To substantiate our advocacy campaign in amending the law to protect survivors, we had to stop society’s shaming and blaming towards them - to end the notion of women’s raped bodies being dirty laundry.

Changing this entrenched taboo required content that not only disrupts the public’s rape-shaming attitude, but sparks engagement and dialogue around rape’s severity.

To break the silence, we decided to spread “dirty laundry” in open air, provoking people to watch it, grabbing media platforms' attention to air it further, and turning lawmakers' eyes to changing the law.

We co-created a spoken word film with a popular influential artist known for taking on prejudices - Remie Akl. Women were literally hung on clotheslines, illustrating the absurdity of raped bodies being “dirty laundry” to be hidden and silenced. The first anti-rape manifesto of its kind from the Middle East.

Then, Nour Arida, Lebanon’s famous international model, popular as someone who posts beauty-related content, shook social media, hosting a web series with ABAAD, boldy showcasing stories of "dirty laundry". Four brave survivors told their heart-wrenching stories and engaged in intimately raw discussions with Nour Arida and psychologists. Nour used her 16 million followers to propagate rape survivors’ voices.

The influencers continued supporting ABAAD's advocacy efforts on-ground with survivors and activists. They carried their bodies and “dirty laundry” to the Lebanese Parliament, demanding, in the faces of lawmakers and media, to make the sentence for rape as serious as the crime.

In a society where raped women were silenced, shamed and labelled “dirty laundry”, ABAAD liberated them in the most unprecedented way known to the Arab world.

Legal Impact:

• Lawmakers had no choice, but to hear our demands. 8 out of 10 Parliament parties gave their commitment to increase the rape sentence.

Media impact:

• Gained local, regional and global media attention, cracking open a wider discussion around rape. Additionally, popular, trusted figures publicly advocated for the cause.

• Earned media value: $2.6 million.

Engagement impact:

• Impressions: 448 million.

• Views: 75.2 million.

• Engagements: 4.3 million.

• Shares: 315,000.

• Likes: 3.6 million.

• Comments: 77,000.

• #1 Trending hashtag on Twitter within thirty minutes of launch.

“Don’t air your dirty laundry” is a common expression used in Lebanon to mean “don’t talk about shameful matters”.

Instantly, “shameful matters” is associated with rape, even if it isn’t explicitly said out loud.

In fact, people in Lebanese society don’t want to outwardly speak about rape because it’s viewed as a “dishonorable” and shameful topic.

This has led to a culturally-specific and deeply entrenched belief that raped women themselves are dishonorable, whereby their “shame” tarnishes their family’s reputation.

Accordingly, they’re silenced.

By the same token, the law in Lebanon dealing with sexual assault is titled “Crimes That Affect Honor”, which fails to recognize the severity of rape as a crime, reflected through absurdly minimal rape sentences.

This is why ABAAD needed to break the silence and change the law in Lebanon, and implicitly empower regional countries who hold the same patriarchal attitudes to do the same.