Will you marry me?
All marriages in Lebanon are performed by a religious authority and are registered in the husband's jurisdiction of birth. Those wishing to have a civil marriage must marry outside the country. In cases of interfaith relationships, either partner can convert to the faith of the other for the purpose of marriage."
- US Embassy in Lebanon
10 years have passed since the start of the 21st century, the 3rd millennium, and we are still forced to flee our own country to get a civil marriage. We have to escape the borders of our beautiful Lebanon in order to marry someone of a different confession. Are we civilized?
We pride ourselves in our rich heritage, in our multilingualism and in our multicultural society. But what’s the point of it all if it only divides us?
Love can’t be restricted. Forcing a couple to get married in a certain way or else they must do it their way in another country is limiting love to a shallow level. Khalil Gibran’s Lebanon deserves better than that, we know it does. What would our great poet say if he saw how much we have divided Lebanon ? He understood the beauty of our multicultural society when he said:’ I love you when you bow in your mosque, kneel in your temple, pray in your church. For you and I are sons of one religion, and it is the spirit.’
Let us not quarrel over our differences but embrace them and cherish them. We are lucky to be Lebanese. We are not superior nor are we inferior to any country on this blue planet, but we have been given the gift of a lifetime by God or chance – however you wish to see it. Let us allow a Druze to marry a non-Druze, a Muslim to marry a non-Muslim, a Christian to marry a non-Christian and an Atheist to marry a non-Atheist. In other words, let us allow a Lebanese to marry a Lebanese, a human to marry a human.
There is no magical solution for this country. We won’t solve its problems over night. All we have to do is recognize the basic flaws and fix them as soon as possible. Our concept of marriage, therefore of love, is one of those flaws and we should look into our hearts and fix it in a way that would make Gibran Khalil Gibran proud.
That being said, will you marry me?
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