I’m not really sure what is Tony Khalife’s deal with NGOs that are working against domestic violence but he has gone too far this time and his last two interventions on this issue are, according to my humble opinion, utter nonsense. Even more, he’s damaging the reputation of respectable NGOs and turning the public against them without having any scientific proof to back his claims. When he was covering the Sarah el Amine story, he was throwing false claims all over the place and even had a Sheikh on the show who kept undermining the work of NGOs. I won’t go back to this episode but focus on his latest intervention during his appearance on Al Hayat TV where he attacked once again NGOs concerned with domestic violence against women.
[YouTube]
You can watch the 4-minute long video above and here are my thoughts on it:
– Claiming that some NGOs and lawyers are interfering in internal family affairs and pushing women to file lawsuits against their abusive husbands is complete nonsense. When a man abuses his wife or his children or vice versa, it’s no longer a family affair but a social issue and NGOs are here to help these women speak out and not suffer (or die) in silence.
– Claiming that certain NGOs get paid for every woman that dies due to domestic violence is a serious accusation that needs to be backed by clear evidence. If that’s not the case, he should apologize to the NGOs in question for harming their reputation.
– Claiming that NGOs have caused an increase in the number of domestic violence victims is also a serious accusation that has no scientific evidence. If anything, these NGOs are shedding the light on more and more cases everyday that no one used to hear about them before and I’m glad Mona Abou Hamze disagreed with him on this statement.
– Refusing to admit that men are the dominant group in our society is like refusing to admit most of the Lebanese are still sectarian. We are still way behind in terms of women rights and even human rights at this point.
– Claiming that women speaking out in public in front of their sons about their abusive husband is more humiliating than their husband beating them at home in front of their kids is probably the worst thing Tony said on that night. NGOs and organizations have been working for years to help women break their silence and speak out against their abusive husbands and seek protection from the authorities and society. By asking them to keep things in the house, these women and their children will suffer in silence just like what happened with Sarah el Amine.
Moreover, being an educated and respectable person has nothing to do with domestic violence. We’ve seen how a lawyer was beating his wife in public the other day and was almost bragging about it on public TV and on your show as well. Therefore, if you come back home and you find the police waiting for you, it must be for a good reason not because NGOs and lawyers are pushing women to file random lawsuits. Last but not least, an NGO that is working to eliminate all forms of exploitation and violence against women is not entitled to report cases of domestic violence against men. If Tony Khalife feels there are a lot of men being abused by women, he should start his own NGO then and report these cases and organize demonstrations and everyone will gladly support him if he’s right.
I think it’s quite ironic that Tony Khalife is running a show to help shed the light on important topics and is criticizing at the same time NGOs that are helping shed the light on domestic violence cases and supporting women being abused by their husbands. If he feels certain NGOs are not doing their job well which is properly the case, then he should prepare a show to evaluate their work and not just throw random accusations at them. Also, he should reconsider some of the cases he’s talking about and whether they helped or harmed the people involved as well.
All in all, I think it would better if he invests more time and effort into spreading awareness on domestic violence and on ways to support the victims rather than get into a pointless war with NGOs and organizations, specially those that are closely working with the authorities.
He should be jailed for this.
Guys like him are a disgrace to humanity.
Hey, well said.
Mona abu hamze has earnt my respect. Very reasonable, doesn’t resort to emotions and screaming and standing like Tony Khalife.
He probably abuses his own wife
Just what i though, lol
Thought*
Any link to Mona Abou Hamze’s Response?
Couldn’t have said it better! He even TRIED to accuse our NGO (bikaffe.org) falsely and they (MTV) have very sick ways to lure people and try to get a false scoop but they couldn’t do anything because the truth speaks for itself.
I don’t understand why so many people disagree with him. I complete agree with everything he’s saying. He’s talking about how these “NGO’s” are online out to make a profit. He’s also extremely apologetic to the lady present representing an NGO, he told her that it’s not her NGO, but other NGOs that use these stories to collect money. He also raises an important issue, the NGOs get the women roused and don’t provide any protection. It’s like they want her to get her to use her as another victim to collect money off of her. Reading all these comments and your article Najib, makes me wonder if we’re even watching the same video here. Hopefully you’ll approve this comment Najib.
Well said, I agree Roula, and I think Najib needs some spanking. This is the first time I disagree with him on something.
Hello Najib,
Hello everyone,
I am a big fan of your blog. I check it on daily basis and get pissed when there is no updates or new posts. Anyway I’ll make this short.
From the title of the post I realized you are attacking Toni. Ok to be honest Toni plays on my nerves and I hate the way he approaches his guests, or the topics he covers. Let me not go to his judging issues, when he feels superior advising and pointing fingers on people. So I’m not a fan of Toni at all, and my opinion is based on my logic and the way I see things.
I really think that domestic violence against woman exists, and I also think domestic violence against men exists. Of course it varies, knowing that men may be physically stronger because that is how it is. (Let’s not debate nature).
Now we all know lawyers, some are good some are bad. And lawyers invest lots of time and money to graduate and make money. When they make money, they want to be recognized locally or nationally. When they are recognized nationally they want to be recognized internationally, through out the international community, NGOs…. Saying that I’m gonna add one more layer to the background, which is the Lebanese mentality and life style. Starting from our judges all the way to our lawyers, even to the people who are ordered to go arrest a suspect in this case the police, ( I’m not generalizing) are crooks. If you want to get a divorce, lawyers play their games to make it a never ending process, so the two parties spend more and more money. If it’s a land dispute they do the same, if it’s a renters-owners issue they do the same. And now it’s the new trend in Lebanon ( domestic violence against woman) money making and best publicity machine. so please let’s be rational; Yes lawyers can make things worse, unless the couples are mature enough to agree on splitting and making the process as smooth as possible.
NGOs in Lebanon, please don’t even take me there. I’ve been dealing with NGOs inside and outside Lebanon for years now, and I know the corruption found in the body of every NGO. Yes some people are serious about their beliefs, they fight for a certain cause, but at the end of the day they are non governmental and they seek profit. Not saying seeking profit as an NGO, I mean members of these NGOs. I’m saying that from experience.
I think Toni was right this time.
We really need to fight domestic violence, and give women their rights, it’s not about giving,because we don’t give it, it’s already given for granted by an ultimate power or God; all we should do is respect their rights and practice that in action. And doing so in a country like Lebanon is hard, as long as we have no government that respects it’s people, its territory and sovereignty. A country that doesn’t respect foreign workers, gay people, or animals. A country that doesn’t respect people personal lives, limit their freedom. A country that doesn’t respect people who smoke “marijuana” without hurting others and treat them like criminals or class A drug addicts; while protecting a piece of shit lawyer who wrestled his wife on the street or a dumb ass doctor who ruin the future of a new born barely one year old, who have no more future like other kids unless you wonna be optimistic and say she can have a good life and whatever happened to her cant stop her from achieving her dreams, and you know that is none sense.
BTW Najib what happened to the guy who’s penis was cut? Toni Khalid’s got him a doctor who said he will re-fix it lol and I never heard about that or got any updates. Please try to investigate and write a post about that. Oh ain’t that domestic violence Ain’t that domestic violence
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