Lebanon: A Loving Relationship on Social Media Ends in an Awful Murder

Lebanese social media has been heavily concerned with the latest case of domestic violence, in which a young model was strangled to death by her husband of six months last Saturday.

Zeina Kanjo, a young model from northern Lebanon was found dead after being strangled. According to Zeina's family, her husband is the main suspect.

Zeina's sister sent a recorded phone call to a local TV channel, in which the husband admitted to trying to silence his wife by covering her mouth, telling the sister: "what else should I have done after seeing her with someone else in my house?"

Several sources have reported that Zeina's husband was trying to flee the country following her murder, but a person he contacted to ask about his options reported him to the police after knowing that he had killed his wife.

Reports have also noted that the couple was not leading a happy marriage despite misleading social media posts that showed an ideal relationship, and that Zeina had already filed for divorce on the basis of domestic violence.

Social media has widely responded to Zeina's murder with condemnation; saying that the country's laws continue to be unjust to women and that authorities have repeatedly failed to protect them in instances of domestic violence.

Lebanese authorities have reported a 112% spike in domestic violence reports by women between January and August 2020 compared to the same period of 2019, which has been linked to worsening economic conditions in the country that has been rocked by a number of subsequent crises even before the COVID19 pandemic hit the country.