Hanaa Khodr, new victim of a feminicide in Lebanon. (Sourced from Hanaa Khodr's Facebook profile)
BEIRUT — A woman who was allegedly burned alive by her husband last week, while she was five months pregnant, died of her injuries on Wednesday in a hospital in Tripoli (North Lebanon), her uncle told L'Orient Today.
Here’s what we know:
• Hanaa Khodr, 21, who suffered third-degree burns all over her body, lost her baby after allegedly being beaten and set on fire by her husband on Aug. 10. The couple already had two children.
• The Internal Security Forces have not yet released a statement on the incident.
• In 2014, a law was passed that criminalized domestic violence, but this text was deemed insufficient by local NGOs and human rights groups, who said that gaps remain in the law and how it is applied.
• According to Abaad, a human rights organization that advocates for gender equality in Lebanon, calls to its domestic violence hotlines increased by 110 percent in March 2020, when the country first went into lockdown, compared to the previous year.
• Leila Awada, a lawyer with the NGO Kafa (enough) Violence and Exploitation, told L’Orient Today last year, that seven years after the issuing of the domestic abuse law, a specialized domestic violence unit in the security forces has not yet been formed. This still stands true today.
• Without a specialized task force, Awada said domestic violence cases are often investigated by officers with no special training in handling abuse cases, meaning they may be less sensitive in dealing with survivors of abuse and lack experience in investigating abuse cases.