![Laure Moghaizel](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Laure_Moghaizel.jpg)
Laure Moghaizel (1929–1997) was a
Lebanese attorney and prominent
women's rights
Women's rights are the rights and entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st centuries. In some countries, ...
advocate. She was awarded with the world-renowned
National Order of the Cedar
National may refer to:
Common uses
* Nation or country
** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen
Places in the United States
* National, Maryland, ce ...
(Commander), a medal in recognition of her many years of social and public service.
Moghaizel was a founding member of many organizations including the Democratic Party of Lebanon, the Lebanese Association for Human Rights, and Bahithat (Lebanese Women Researchers).
Early life and education
Laure Moghaizel was born on April 21, 1929, in
Hasbayeh, Lebanon, to Labiba Saab and Nassib Salim Nasr.
She, her sister, and her two brothers lived in three cities during their younger years -
Jounieh
Jounieh ( ar, جونيه, or ''Juniya'', ) is a coastal city in Keserwan District, about north of Beirut, Lebanon. Since 2017, it has been the capital of Keserwan-Jbeil Governorate. Jounieh is known for its seaside resorts and bustling nightlife ...
,
Aley
Aley ( ar, عاليه) is a major city in Lebanon. It is the capital of the Aley District and fourth largest city in Lebanon.
The city is located on Mount Lebanon, 15 km uphill from Beirut on the freeway to Damascus. Aley has the nickn ...
and
Baalbeck
Baalbek (; ar, بَعْلَبَكّ, Baʿlabakk, Syriac-Aramaic: ܒܥܠܒܟ) is a city located east of the Litani River in Lebanon's Beqaa Valley, about northeast of Beirut. It is the capital of Baalbek-Hermel Governorate. In Greek and Roman ...
. Moghaizel's father was a high ranking police officer whose work demanded constant relocation throughout Lebanon, allowing her increased exposure to various settings, peoples and cultures.
She became fluent in English, French, and Arabic.
Moghaizel's parents, specifically her mother Labiba Saab, were seen as progressive, in the context of the time period. They encouraged each of their children to reach their highest educational potential. Her mother urged her and her sister to continue their studies post-
Baccalaureate Baccalaureate may refer to:
* ''Baccalauréat'', a French national academic qualification
* Bachelor's degree, or baccalaureate, an undergraduate academic degree
* English Baccalaureate, a performance measure to assess secondary schools in England ...
, though post-graduate studies were generally limited to the wealthy in Lebanon.
Moghaizel acquired her secondary education at Aley National School where she received a
secular
Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...
, progressive,
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
education.
After, she moved to
Beirut
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...
and continued her studies at the Besançon school in Beirut (College des Soeurs de la Charite), which was considered one of the renowned schools in the region at that time. She continued her education at
Saint Joseph University
Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...
at the Institute of Oriental Studies, where she pursued a degree in
philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
in Arabic, and later a
law degree
A law degree is an academic degree conferred for studies in law. Such degrees are generally preparation for legal careers. But while their curricula may be reviewed by legal authority, they do not confer a license themselves. A legal license is gra ...
. In law school, Laure was one of only three women in her class of 100 men.
Laure also met her future husband, Joseph Moghaizel, while they were both students at university.
It was during her first year of law school in 1949 that Moghaizel began to meet other like-minded women, many of whom similarly pioneered women's rights in Lebanon. These figures included Laure Tabet, Mirvat Ibrahim and Najla Saab.
Moghaizel became socially and politically established during her early adulthood. She decided on a career in the
public sector
The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...
, became involved with the
feminist movement
The feminist movement (also known as the women's movement, or feminism) refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by the inequality b ...
, and committed her life to the intersection of law and women's issues.
Political career and activism
Early career
After Lebanese independence from the
French Mandate
The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon (french: Mandat pour la Syrie et le Liban; ar, الانتداب الفرنسي على سوريا ولبنان, al-intidāb al-fransi 'ala suriya wa-lubnān) (1923−1946) was a League of Nations mandate foun ...
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.
These two bodies merged in 1952 under the Lebanese Council of Women.
Moghaizel herself was a member of the Christian Women's Solidarity Association, and remained a part of the later Council.
During the
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...
, 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.
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
The Lebanese American University (LAU) ( ar, الجامعة اللبنانية الأميركية) is a secular and private American university located in Lebanon. It is chartered by the board of regents of the University of the State of New Y ...
(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.
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).
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.
Legal activism and approach
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.
As described by author Rita Stephan, “Laure Moghaizel considered women’s rights as a matter of equal and fair treatment for all citizens”.
She specifically took ''five'' approaches in fitting women's issues into a framework of general legal rights. These included:
political rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...
,
legal competence,
economic and social rights
Economic, social and cultural rights, (ESCR) are socio-economic human rights, such as the right to education, right to housing, right to an adequate standard of living, right to health, victims' rights and the right to science and culture. Econo ...
, rights under
punitive law, and rights under
personal status
Legal status is the status or position held by an entity as determined by the law. It includes or entails a set of privileges, obligations, powers or restrictions that a person or thing has as encompassed in or declared by legislation.
Jack Balki ...
law.
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.
In 1985, Moghaizel was central in the establishment the Lebanese Association for Human Rights.
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
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...
and
private
Private or privates may refer to:
Music
* " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation''
* Private (band), a Denmark-based band
* "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...
contexts''.
The couple worked through the
courts
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
to reform “important but often-overlooked laws that impacted women’s lives”.
These laws ranged from rights in business transactions to social service privileges.
(''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
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
clause that re-committed the nation to upholding the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which Lebanon technically adopted in 1948.
The clause set a key
precedent
A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...
in Lebanon that international humanitarian standards ''must supersede national law''
''.'' 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
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...
, by the time it gained momentum in Lebanon.
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.
Accomplishments
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
Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...
* 1987 Entitlement to retirement benefits, and the establishment of an equal institutional
retirement age
This article lists the statutory retirement age in different countries.
Background
In some contexts, the retirement age is the age at which a person is expected or required to cease work. It is usually the age at which such a person may be enti ...
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
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed.
When these princip ...
clause strengthening Lebanese commitment to upholding the
UDHR
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, i ...
* 1993 Right of women to legally witness in
real-estate contracts
* 1994 Right for married women to practice
commerce
Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...
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
Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...
(Stephan, 124)
* 1996 Lebanese adoption of
CEDAW
Personal life
Laure Moghaizel met her husband Joseph when they were both students at
Saint Joseph University
Saint Joseph University of Beirut ( French: ''Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth'', abbreviated to and commonly known as "USJ") is a private Catholic research university located in Beirut, Lebanon, which was founded in 1875 by French Jesuit mis ...
in
Beirut, Lebanon
Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
. 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”.
In an interview, Laure explained how much she enjoyed coming home from the office, “...
akingoff
ersuit and slipping into some overalls,
laying
Laying is the act of making equipment level. It usually involves moving equipment in small motions so that spirit levels are centralised in all planes. Movement is usually done by small worm gears or other fine setting devices for accurate sma ...
with the children,
iving Iving may refer to:
*Intravenous therapy
Intravenous therapy (abbreviated as IV therapy) is a medical technique that administers fluids, medications and nutrients directly into a person's vein. The intravenous route of administration is commonly ...
them their baths, and
elpingthem with their homework” (LaTeef 206). 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.
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.
Her youngest son, Naji Moghaizel, was born with
Down syndrome
Down syndrome or Down's syndrome, also known as trisomy 21, is a genetic disorder caused by the presence of all or part of a third copy of chromosome 21. It is usually associated with physical growth delays, mild to moderate intellectual dis ...
, and is one of the reasons why Laure and Joseph became involved in movements to support the disabled.
One of her daughters, Jana Moghaizel, was educated as a linguist at the
Sorbonne
Sorbonne may refer to:
* Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities.
*the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970)
*one of its components or linked institution, ...
and was a published author. She came to visit her parents in Beirut for Christmas in 1986 during the
Lebanese Civil War
The Lebanese Civil War ( ar, الحرب الأهلية اللبنانية, translit=Al-Ḥarb al-Ahliyyah al-Libnāniyyah) was a multifaceted armed conflict that took place from 1975 to 1990. It resulted in an estimated 120,000 fatalities a ...
.
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 “
ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames.
Notable p ...
not forgive anyone who participated in the war” and that the “Lebanese people killed our own children”.
Moghaizel wore black for the duration of her life to mourn Jana's death.
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.
Legacy
Laure Moghaizel's work on setting up the Lebanese Association for Human Rights in 1985 is regarded as the largest achievement of her career. The Association managed to improve access to basic human rights for the average Lebanese person.
By setting influential precedents through the court system, the association expanded the rights of women in Lebanon, especially in relation to business. The adoption of
CEDAW by Lebanon was another great accomplishment associated with the Moghaizels.
However, Laure Moghaizel's accomplishments are viewed critically by certain academics in the context of her personal life, particularly her marriage and her family.
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...
professor
Rita Stephan asked in a 2010 article, “How does the
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger ...
and, in the Moghaizel case, the married couple, impinge upon and shape activism for women’s rights?”.
Stephan examines the extent to which Moghaizel's marriage and
social norm
Social norms are shared standards of acceptance, acceptable behavior by groups. Social norms can both be informal understandings that govern the behavior of members of a society, as well as be codified into wikt:rule, rules and laws. Social normat ...
s influenced her activism, accepting
Nancy Fraser's contention that contemporaries lack “a coherent, integrated, balanced conception of agency . . . that can accommodate both the power of social constraints and the capacity to act situatedly against them” (Ibid.) Stephan argues that Laure Moghaizel gained “
social capital
Social capital is "the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively". It involves the effective functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships ...
from being able to show the full approval of their families and husbands” (Ibid.) in the Lebanese context.
Joseph's presence in Laure's life can be simultaneously viewed as a boon and restricting factor that set precedent for future social activism in Lebanon.
Her contributions to feminism, therefore, are considered by critics to provide a framework for advancing women's’ rights in developing societies that also limits the extent of potential social change.
Laure's family has remained prominent in the Lebanese legal community, with her aforementioned daughter Dr. Nada Moghaizel Naga serving as a dean at St. Joseph University and their son Fadi Moghaizel operating his parents’ former law office.
References
External links
Laure Moghaizel*
Bahithat
Lebanese Association for Human RightsMoghaizel Law OfficeAmal Moghaizel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moghaizel, Laure
1929 births
1997 deaths
Lebanese lawyers
Lebanese women's rights activists
Commanders of the National Order of the Cedar
20th-century Lebanese lawyers