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Marriage Lebanese Style By Anne Sengès and Jessie Deeter San Francisco Chronicle Foreign Services They had a modern romance. They met at the office, exchanged jokes via e-mail, and went to see movies in French, Arabic and English. She thought he read too much. He thought she wore too much make-up. But when they finally decided to wed, he agnostic, she Muslim, Faris Sayegh, 36, and Zena Jisr, 29, were forced to marry in Cyprus because marriage outside of a church or mosque does not exist in Lebanon. "I personally have two problems with a religious wedding," said Sayegh, a geographical information systems consultant who comes from a Protestant family. "No.1, I don't believe in it. No.2, whatever you do, whether you choose a church or a mosque, you will offend the other side." Jisr, for her part, was "very happy the way I got married." A former industrial spy who is now an executive assistant in an investment company, Jisr describes herself as a "modern" woman who wants to be treated as an equal to her husband. She views civil marriage as a part of that equality. "I think in the Muslim way, women really don't have any rights in marriage," she said. The couple opted for a civil ceremony because it is the only neutral way to legalize their relationship in a country where living together outside marriage is still taboo. They are among the fortunates ones, able to fly to Cyprus, the most popular civil marriage destination for Lebanese. The couple was followed on the short flight over the Mediterranean by 15 friends and relatives who attended the secular wedding in June. Next Page...