14 Questions To Ask To 2018 Candidates

Parliamentary elections are supposedly just around the corner. We still don't know who's running against whom and who struck an alliance with whom. Rumors have it that we should expect some shocking alliances but really, is anything going to shock us? We've learned to expect anything and everything. There is no more unexpected! Any twist is to be anticipated for any twist can be explained "by looking at the bigger picture", by "remembering our martyrs" or by "trusting the leaders decision making and smarts".

Our political parties electoral platforms are known and they all have the same spin when confronted with a specific question: we've been trying our best, "they" don't want us to succeed, we're fighting corruption with all he have, the people's well-being remains our main objective, the independence of the land is out of compromise, we owe our martyr the utmost loyalty.

I am registered to vote in Beirut I and I don't know who I will vote for, not because I don't know who the candidates are or what the alliances will be, but because I am looking for real and factual answers to a list of questions I personally believe is more important than the reiteration of large themes and constant blaming of "the others".

Question number 1: What is your position on LGBTQ rights?

Question number 2: Do you think LGBTQ couples should be allowed to get married? If yes, will you fight for this right?

Question number 3: Do you think LGBTQ couples should be allowed to adopt kids? If yes, will you fight for this right?

Question number 4: Do you believe that a man forcing himself on his wife is rape? Will you fight for the criminilization of marital rape?

Question number 5: Do you think abortions should be legal? Will you fight for the right of every woman to have access to safe and legal abortion?

Question number 6: Do you think a man should be allowed to legally recognize a child he has outside of marriage (either it from an extramarital affair or a normal relationship with a woman)? Will you fight for our right to form families without getting married?

Question number 7: Will you fight for our right as Lebanese men and women to have a civil marriage in our country?

Question number 8: Do you believe that all human beings are born equal? Will you fight for the abolition of religious marriage and the instauration of a unified civil status code of laws?

Question number 9: Will you fight for Lebanese women's right to pass their nationality to their kids?

Question number 10: Do you think the elderly, people with physical or mental disabilities, and kids should be left to poverty and reduced to the state of beggars on the streets? What's your plan and timeline (step by step) to implement a solution?

Question number 11: Will you push for a fair review of the label laws?

Question number 12: Do you think parents have the right to "discipline" their kids using physical punishment? If no, will you fight for a real and practical solution, including removing the kids from their parents care and placing them in vetoed foster houses?

Question number 13: Do you think a rape victim ever holds any responsibility in the crime? What will you do to protect the victims from the widespread belief that sometimes/most of the time the victim was asking for it?

Question number 14: In cases of molestation of minors, what is your plan to break the private institutions silence culture, prosecute the criminals and their enablers, protect the identity of the victims, help them and provide emotional and psychological help?

More questions will come soon!

If you're a candidate and you want to share your answers, please note that if any of your answers will sound anything like "when it comes to people's religions, the State cannot interfere" or "these are not Lebanese values" or "what do we do with the Palestinians" or "we can't force people to embrace such values" or "change starts with the people not in the texts of law", just don't bother answering and don't expect me to vote for you!