First Lady Neemat Aoun chairing a meeting of the National Commission for Lebanese Women to support the proposed women’s quota law in the elections on Jan. 16, 2026. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT – First Lady Neemat Aoun chaired the National Commission for Lebanese Women's (NCLW) meeting convened in support of the proposed women’s quota law in the upcoming 2026 parliamentary elections, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Friday.
Efforts are underway in Lebanon to adopt a legislated women’s quota law ahead of the upcoming elections. The NCLW, along with various civil society organizations and international partners like the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP), is advocating for a unified draft law to ensure a minimum percentage of women in Parliament and improve female representation.
Aoun said in her opening speech that the meeting's aim is "to announce a practical and bold step toward correcting a historical imbalance in women’s political representation: adopting a 33 percent women’s quota in the upcoming parliamentary elections."
"This decision is not the end of the road, but the beginning of a mission to achieve fair and equal representation of men and women in Parliament and all decision-making positions," she added.
She emphasized that "collaborative work between official institutions, civil society organizations, international organizations, experts, and professionals is the only path to achieving tangible progress and turning demands into reality."
Joelle Abu Farhat, Chair of the organization Fifty Fifty, said that "in the 2022 elections, only eight women were elected, or 6.25 percent of Parliament, in a country where women make up more than half of the population. These numbers are unacceptable."
Mohammad Shams al-Din, a researcher at the International Institute for Information, presented the proposed law aiming to amend Law No. 44 of June 17, 2017, regarding the election of MPs, to ensure “40 percent of candidates on electoral lists are women, and 33 percent of parliamentary seats are reserved for them.”
"At the end of the discussions, it was agreed to continue preparing the final draft of the law and to maintain advocacy efforts for its approval," NNA added.
In November, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that women’s representation in Lebanon “remains low due to a political and social system still governed by patriarchal mentalities,” urging them to participate “massively” in the 2026 parliamentary elections as both "candidates and voters."
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