ALBAWABA - On Saturday, Hassan Nasrallah, the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, delivered a speech in which he discussed "a Western scheme to destroy Arab societies by promoting certain things such as homosexuality," sparking outrage on social media platforms.
Nasrallah also added that: "Early marriage falls under god's plan, and whoever opposes it is the devil's server", "Everyone must stand up to those who work to destroy our communities in order to preserve human purity," he said, drawing angry responses from women's and children's rights associations and social media activists.
In detail, Hassan Nasrallah justified his reasons by saying that he believes that there is nothing wrong with marrying off a 16 or 17-year-old girl as long as she has a sense of responsibility through which she can decide on her future choices, perform her family duties, in which case, the girl cannot be considered a minor.
Various reactions emerged online as people interacted with the Shia leader's speech. Some commented on Nasrallah's speech saying that its absolute hypocrisy and absurdity.
"We are scared of tarnishing society’s values, while society is corrupt and full of sexual and non-sexual crimes from people whose sexual orientation is straight", said Ola Khazaal, an activist and a designer.
Diana Moukalled, a Lebanese activist and journalist, shared her opinion on the matter, saying: "His words culminate the path of demonization that has been going on for months by several Muslim and Christian parties in Lebanon towards these groups on false “ethics” grounds,".
Hayat Mirshad, a Lebanese journalist and activist, commented in an interview with Al-Nahar newspaper on Nasrallah's speech by saying, "We were surprised that he addressed the issue in the way he did, and to treat us as if we were the enemies and devil servers,".
"Each party has its own vision and agenda, and the Lebanese Women Democratic Gathering follows a gender and human rights approach, and according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by Lebanon, any person under 18 years of age is a child."
"Our goal is to protect young women from early marriage, which we consider an offense and is linked to the offense of trafficking in human beings. There are families whose girls get married just for the sake of money, apart from serious repercussions on the girl's psyche, health, and economic life."
