Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa - Palestine (Palestinian Authority and Israeli-Occupied Territories)

  • Author: Suheir Azzouni
  • Document source:
  • Date:
    14 October 2005

Population: 3,390,000
GDP Per Capita (PPP): $921
Economy: Capitalist
Ranking on UN HDI: 102 out of 177
Polity: Parliamentary (military and partly foreign-occupied)
Literacy: Male 96.3% / Female 87.4%
Percent Women Economically Active: 9.5%
Date of Women's Suffrage: N/A
Women's Fertility Rate: 5.7
Percent Urban/Rural: Urban 57% / Rural 43%

COUNTRY RATINGS FOR PALESTINE

Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice: 2.6
Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person: 2.7
Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity: 2.8
Political Rights and Civic Voice: 2.6
Social and Cultural Rights: 2.9

(Scale of 1 to 5: 1 represents the lowest and 5 the highest level of freedom women have to exercise their rights)

INTRODUCTION

The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established in 1994 with limited authority over the Palestinian population living in the Israeli Occupied Territory, which includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The areas under limited PA rule are not contiguous but are separated by 102 Israeli checkpoints in the West Bank and 21 in Gaza. Checkpoints, curtailing Palestinian freedom of movement, and lack of security in a situation close to war, have devastated the Palestinian economy. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), at the beginning of 2002, 66.5 percent of Palestinian households were living below the poverty line. The situation now is graver still. Palestinians are generally prevented from traveling between towns, and restrictions on movement have had a serious effect on Palestinian women's access to health care facilities, employment locations, and educational institutions.

Continued political unrest and ongoing armed conflict, combined with restrictions on freedom of movement, the inability of most PA courts to enforce decisions, and a slow process of new legislation, make it extremely difficult for Palestinian women to advocate for women's rights in the face of continuing violence and poverty. As a result, Palestinian women suffer from insufficient legal protections and inconsistent enforcement of laws.

Of the 3.39 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, almost 1.5 million have been refugees since the 1948 war and more than 800,000 live in refugee camps scattered through the Territory. The vast majority of Palestinians, refugees and non-refugees, are stateless. Most Palestinian residents of the occupied territories are Sunni Muslims. However, significant populations of Palestinian Christians, a majority of whom are Greek Orthodox, live in the territories, as well as Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics, Protestants, Syriacs, Armenians, Copts, Maronites, and Ethiopian Orthodox. In general, Christians are concentrated in the areas of Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Bethlehem. Jewish Israeli settlers also live in the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem, but not under Palestinian jurisdiction.

All discussions about Palestine's constitution, its laws, and their impact on women must be viewed through the limitations imposed by the Israeli occupation. The occupation dictates the ways in which the Palestinian Authority conducts its affairs and how Palestinians go about their daily lives. It also greatly impacts Palestinians' personal security. From the beginning of the second Intifada – the uprising started in September 2000 – until May 2003, 2,484 Palestinians were killed – among them 152 women.

The status of women inside the family and in Palestinian society is determined in part by recent Palestinian legislation and in part by laws inherited from the Jordanian and Egyptian laws in effect in the West Bank and Gaza before the 1967 Israeli occupation. While there have been many positive changes for women under laws adopted by the Palestinian Authority, gender-based discriminatory practices enshrined in the Jordanian and Egyptian laws still apply to situations not covered by new legislation. Personal status law for Palestinians is based on religious law. For Muslim Palestinians, personal status law is derived from Shari'a, while the varied ecclesiastical courts rule on personal status issues for Christians. Civil courts do not adjudicate on such matters.

NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

The third draft constitution (The Basic Law) of Palestine, which appeared in the Official Gazette in March 2003, views Palestinians as equal before the law. Article 9 of the constitution states that Palestinians will not be subject to "any discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, political convictions or disability." The draft also states that the principles of Islamic Shari'a are a major source of legislation.

Article 32 of the draft constitution states that any violation of personal liberties or the privacy of the person or other general civil rights that are protected by the constitution or the law will be considered a crime. A presidential decree in 1993 established the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens Rights (PICCR), with a mandate to ensure respect for citizens' rights in Palestine.

Although the draft constitution states that the rights and liberties of all citizens shall be protected and that citizens – men and women – will be treated equally without discrimination, many laws do not make gender discrimination punishable. A few of the newly drafted laws are more gender-sensitive, however; they refer to citizen, employee, or person, refer to both males and females, and some even contain provisions that clearly render discrimination illegal.

The Palestinian women's movement has actively engaged in dialogues with the Palestinian Legislative Council to secure a woman's right to extend citizenship to her husband and their children. However, citizenship rights remain covered by the laws and regulations valid before 1967 in the Palestinian territories; the Jordanian nationality code no. 6 of 1945 and its amendments are applied in the West Bank, and the Egyptian code is applied in Gaza. Both codes deny the right of women to pass their nationality to their husbands or children. Additionally, a woman is not entitled to maintain her nationality if she marries a non-Palestinian unless she submits a written application to the Minister of Interior within one year following her marriage. In practice, however, women married to non-Palestinians are not always asked by the Ministry of Interior to give up their Palestinian nationality.

Palestinians living in Jerusalem under Israeli rule hold Jerusalem identity cards. These cards serve as residence permits and enable Palestinians to live, travel, work, and attend school. Many of the women – and some men – holding Jerusalem identity cards and married to Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza cannot obtain Jerusalem identity cards for their spouses, and their spouses are not allowed to live in Jerusalem. Children also find it difficult to live or attend school in Jerusalem if only their mother and not their father holds a Jerusalem identity card.

Under Islamic law (the Jordanian and Egyptian Laws that were in effect before the 1967 occupation), a Muslim woman has the right to keep her maiden name after marrying if she wishes. In the PA and Israeli Occupied Territories, however, there are neither legal stipulations that entitle a woman to maintain her maiden name after marriage nor stipulations that oblige her to adopt her husband's name. In practice, Palestinian women's family names are automatically changed at marriage because the Palestinian passport, like the Israeli identity card, automatically changes women's family names to those of their husbands. The names of Palestinian women holding Jerusalem identity cards are also automatically changed to their husbands' family names.

Women are discriminated against in laws governing marriage, divorce, custody of children, inheritance, and violence against women. Palestinian men and women do not have equal access to justice, and women are particularly discriminated against in the penal code, which is derived from Jordanian and Egyptian law. The law enforcement structure is male dominated and sometimes biased against women. Women are marginally represented among judges and police, which may make women hesitant to turn to the courts or law enforcement for help. Access to justice has proved a challenge for both men and women throughout the second Intifada (2000 to present). The existing political situation, in addition to Israeli incursions and the inability of the Palestinian Authority to enforce the law properly, has rendered the judiciary and law-enforcement mechanisms weaker than ever. It has also strengthened the use of tribal and customary law.

The judiciary system in Palestine is composed of a hierarchy of courts. Women are not recognized as full persons before the courts as witnesses or in matters related to marriage, divorce, and custody of children. The Women's Center for Legal Advice and Counseling (WCLAC) report for 2000 states that the Palestinian judiciary exhibits views of women as "inferior" and that women generally are "looked down upon and treated with scorn." It also reports that "a divorced woman is treated as though she has been 'indicted' for failing to try to sustain the marriage."

Women suffer disproportionately from law enforcement that is weakened by the fact that Palestinians fall under four different legal systems – Israeli, Jordanian, Egyptian, and Palestinian – and there are no legal agreements between the various authorities. For example, a father with an Israeli passport or a Jerusalem identity card can kidnap his child and go to the Israeli area, where the Palestinian Authority cannot enforce child custody laws. The same holds true for alimony cases in which husbands living inside Israel can escape their legal obligations to their former wives.

A number of Palestinian women have been murdered by family members for "tarnishing the name and the honor of the family," although statistics are difficult to obtain because police often report these crimes, or "honor killings," as suicides or other causes of death. It is estimated that there are about 20 documented cases of honor crimes in Palestine annually. The WCLAC in Jerusalem states in its report on the situation of Palestinian women in 2001 that 38 cases of femicide were documented between 1996 and 1999, 12 of which occurred in the West Bank and 26 in Gaza; the murders were all committed by close male relatives such as fathers, brothers, and uncles.

Article 340 of the Jordanian penal code, still in effect in the West Bank, enables male relatives to benefit from a lessened sentence should they commit a "crime of honor" and murder a female relative for a perceived misuse of her sexuality. At the same time, there are many stories of Palestinian police providing shelter for women after they have received a death threat. Despite the fact that the Jordanian penal code was amended in Jordan in 2001 to give equal treatment to men and women, the older version still applies in the West Bank. For adultery cases in the West Bank, the code states that: "He who surprises his wife, or one of his [female] Mahrams committing adultery with somebody [in flagrante delicto], and kills, wounds, or injures one or both of them, shall be exempt from liability." It also stipulates that: "He who surprises his wife, or one of his female ascendants or descendants or sisters with another in an unlawful bed, and he kills or wounds or injures one or both of them, shall be liable to a lesser penalty."

In the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian penal code on adultery applies. It states that "he who surprises his wife committing adultery [in flagrante delicto] and immediately kills her and the person committing adultery with her, shall be liable to a prison sentence instead of the penalties provided for in Articles 234, 236." The same lesser penalties do not apply to women surprising their husbands, however. The draft criminal code that was prepared on April 14, 2003 and was circulating in 2003, but is not yet in force, would treat men and women equally in all civil matters, should it become law in Palestine.

Palestinian men and women are subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile by the Israeli Occupying Authorities. There have been numerous cases of "administrative detention," in which the Israeli Authorities keep Palestinians in jail for periods of six months, subject to multiple six-month renewals without trial. PICCR reports that as of December 31, 2003, the Israelis held 6,206 Palestinians in their prisons and detention centers. Among the detainees were 275 children and 77 women. Palestinian women prisoners held in Israeli jails are vulnerable to harsh and humiliating treatment, and their treatment does not meet all international standards for prisoners' rights. In some cases, female prisoners are denied contact with their families.

The Palestinian government has not ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), because Palestine is not an independent country and as such cannot be signatory to international treaties and conventions.

Palestinian women's organizations and official bodies, such as the prominent women's coalition, Palestinian Women's Affairs Technical Committee, have been very active in ensuring that women's issues are addressed in the new Palestinian entity. They have worked together to win the reversal of a few regulations and to ensure that newly drafted laws discussed by the Palestinian Legislative Council do not discriminate against women. Because of their collective work, the Palestinian Labor Law and Social Status Law are now mostly gender-sensitive. However, while women's organizations were more visible and outspoken in the relatively peaceful period that followed the Oslo Accord, they have been less visible and vocal during the second Intifada for a number of reasons, including the need to focus on day-to-day issues involved in life under occupation.

The freedom that Palestinian women's organizations enjoy depends heavily on the political situation in the area. When the situation is more stable, women's groups have more freedom to address the concerns and issues of women. Another factor that influences the level of freedom women's organizations enjoy is the nature of the issue they address. While women feel more empowered and able to address issues dealing with discrimination related to passports, citizenship rights, and raising the minimum age of marriage, they are more severely attacked by extremist Islamic groups when they try to tackle issues dealing with family and inheritance. For example, during the Model Parliament project in 1998, Islamic groups verbally attacked women's organizations and a few activists, claiming that they were sabotaging culture and tradition and introducing concepts contradictory to Islamic Shari'a.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The future Palestinian nationality law should grant women the right to pass their nationality to their husbands and children without any discrimination and allow women the option of maintaining their maiden names on their passports.
  2. The Palestinian Authority should ensure that divorced women receive alimony.
  3. The Palestinian Authority should punish all perpetrators of "honor" crimes.
  4. The Palestinian Authority should appoint more women in the judiciary and provide court and police officials with compulsory training in women's rights.

AUTONOMY, SECURITY, AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON

The third draft constitution (The Basic Law) guarantees freedom of religion and religious practice as well as freedom of thought. Christians and Muslims live peacefully together in Palestine, with few problems of discrimination on the basis of religion. There are examples of Christian-Muslim marriages, although such marriages are easier when they take place between Christian women and Muslim men, as these women are able to remain Christians. Muslim women cannot marry Christian men unless the men convert to Islam.

Women in Palestine do not enjoy complete freedom of movement. The Jordanian passport regulations that applied in the West Bank following the Oslo Accord of 1993 required women to secure the written permission of their "guardians" in order to obtain passports. This regulation was reversed when the Women's Affairs Technical Committee held a five-month advocacy campaign in 1996. The campaign resulted in women gaining the right to obtain passports without the consent of their guardians after the age of 18. However, while women who are aware of the change in this regulation can demand that this right be respected, officers at the Ministry of Interior continue routinely to require women to obtain written consent.

Changing political, economic, and social conditions also affect the mobility of women. The newly erected separation wall and the 123 checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza prevent free mobility of all Palestinians. Israeli checkpoints have prevented women from reaching hospitals and health care centers in time to give birth and also hinder free access to education and employment, especially in areas where secondary schools are scarce and where jobs require moving from one village or city to another. Existing family law provisions also restrict women's freedom of movement. Though rarely invoked, a provision of Egyptian and Jordanian family laws termed the "house of obedience" forces women to return to their husband's house and prevents them from leaving the country if their husband obtains a court order.

The Jordanian Personal Status Law of 1976 remains in effect in the West Bank, as does the Egyptian Law on Family Rights of 1954 in Gaza. The laws are discriminatory in all matters relating to marriage, divorce, and custody of children.

In accordance with the local interpretation of Islamic Shari'a, women can have many rights within a marriage if they are specified in their marriage contract. Prevailing customs however, discourage many women from spelling out these rights. Men are reluctant to marry a woman who has the right to divorce, and families discourage women from adding conditions that may drive the bridegrooms away. It is noteworthy, however, that a 1999 survey by PCBS showed that over half of married women – 55.5 percent – were responsible for their decision to marry (43.5 percent in the West Bank and 78.7 percent in Gaza). A woman's parents made the decision for her to marry 39.8 percent of the time, and 2.6 percent of women surveyed said that a brother or a sister made the decision for them. The survey shows that among those who made the decisions by themselves to marry, 63.7 percent were from urban areas and 36.0 percent were from rural areas.

There is no known practice of slavery of women in Palestine, and there are no laws that address slavery. Additionally, no laws or provisions specifically protect women against torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishment.

Violence against women is extensively reported by local women's institutions and seems to increase during times of political and economic turmoil in the Territory. Currently no laws or provisions in the Territory specifically protect women against domestic violence; however, violence is punishable, whether it is perpetrated against males or females, and women can use such provisions to access the judicial system and law enforcement. Although women can use existing gender-neutral laws like the criminal law to achieve justice, several factors explain why many battered, abused, raped, and threatened women do not invoke these laws against their abusers, such as: social norms that shame a woman who reports her abuse to the police; the feeling that women should remain silent because of their children or because they have no alternative place of residence; and the lack of shelters. There is currently only one shelter in Nablus and a second under construction in the Bethlehem area.

A proposed criminal law would punish those who commit acts of physical violence but does not specify the gender of the violator or his relation to the victim. The Jordanian and Egyptian laws in effect also punish violators without regard to the gender of the victim or perpetrator. Data provided by women's organizations dealing with issues of violence in the West Bank and Gaza indicate that they receive hundreds of cases in which women were victims of sexual, physical, and psychological violence. About 30 percent of the cases involve single women or girls who live with their parents. According to data available from the Working Women's Society in Ramallah, 75 percent of sexual assault cases against women involve men closely related to them. A number of women's organizations freely express their views about violence and the difficulties women face because of Palestine's discriminatory laws and enforcement policies. Women's organizations in Palestine offer a wide array of services, ranging from lobbying and advocacy work to training and psychological counseling.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) should draft a family law that grants women full and equal rights in all areas, especially in matters of marriage, divorce, and custody of children.
  2. The minimum age of marriage should be raised to 18 years for both men and women.
  3. The Palestinian Authority and PLC should abolish laws and policies that reinforce women's inferior status, including the "house of obedience" law and the "honor crime" plea which allows for reduced sentences for crimes committed in the name of honor.
  4. The Palestinian Authority and PLC should introduce new laws to protect women from all forms of violence at home and in all public places, and create special units inside police stations to handle cases of family violence.

ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Palestinian women have the legal right to own land and property and to exercise control over their property. However, prevailing traditions and customs, such as those that encourage women to give up their share of inheritance to their brothers, or those encouraging men to keep property in their names rather than jointly with their wives, render the percentage of women owning property marginal. PCBS showed in its 1999 survey that only 7.7 percent of women in the Palestinian Territory own or share a house/real estate (5.7 percent in the West Bank and 11.1 percent in Gaza). The survey also shows that 5 percent of women own or share a piece of land (5.4 percent in the West Bank and 4.3 percent in the Gaza strip) and only 1 percent own a private car (1.3 percent in the West Bank and 0.4 percent in Gaza).

Despite the de jure independent financial status of men and women under Islamic Shari'a and the property laws in effect in Palestinian areas, there are still women who do not have control over their income and assets. This is mainly due to customs and traditions that continue to view men as the breadwinners and thus assume that financial decision making is the right of the man. However, a large percentage of women in Palestine do claim that they are participants in the main decision making that takes place inside the household. A PCBS survey in 1999 concluded that the "main decision-making concerning the household is done in consensus with the participation of all household members as stated by 88 percent and 92 percent of men and women respectively."

The Jordanian law governing inheritance still applies in the Territory and gives women the right to half the share entitled to a man. Many Palestinian women – especially in rural areas – do not enjoy this right, as they are shamed by society if they claim their legal share of inheritance. Palestinian families in general prefer that their sons inherit so that the family possessions stay in the family and do not go to the family of the daughter's husband. There have been a few campaigns by women's institutions encouraging women to claim their share of inheritance. The 1999 PCBS survey concluded that 20 percent of women entitled to inheritance claimed their share.

No legal barriers prevent women from entering into businesses or economic-related contracts and activities. However, discriminatory family upbringing and social norms – especially in the rural areas – may hinder women from engaging in economic contracts. The new Palestinian Labor Law of 2000, although much advanced from previous law, still contains discriminatory provisions whereby women are not granted the same benefits and allowances as men.

Since its establishment in 1994, the Ministry of Education in the Territories has made impressive efforts to make education accessible for boys and girls. Fewer schools were built for girls than boys during the occupation, and the ministry has since concentrated on the establishment of schools for girls, especially in rural areas. The ministry has further enabled schoolgirls who are engaged or married to return to the classroom to complete their compulsory school education. Prior to that, girls who were married were dismissed from school.

The Labor Force Survey 2003 conducted by PCBS showed that the literacy rate is 91.9 percent among individuals aged 15 years and over in the Palestinian Territory. This rate is 96.3 percent for males and 87.4 percent for females. Despite the high initial enrollment rate at schools, however, there remains a drop-out problem for children at the secondary school level. The female drop-out rate is a result of early marriage and the scarcity of girls' schools at the higher levels in rural areas and refugee camps.

The syllabi, especially in secondary schools, remain traditional and promote stereotypical roles for women and men. Girls are also encouraged by their parents to pursue education that leads to jobs that are an extension of their perceived future roles as mothers and caregivers.

Women's access to education has also been restricted by the ongoing armed conflict in the area and by the construction of the "separation wall" between Israeli and Palestinian areas. Palestinian women living close to the wall now must walk longer distances in order to get to their schools and universities. The wall has also placed new economic burdens on Palestinian families who must arrange transportation services for girls and women in the family to attend schools.

A large percentage of women remain outside the labor force in the Palestinian Territory. Another large percentage work as unpaid family members or in the informal sector, where they do not enjoy the benefits and protections provided by the Labor Law. According to the UNDP, 90.5 percent of women in the Palestinian Territory are outside the labor force. Of the women who received 13 or more years of education, 55.7 percent are outside the formal labor force, and less than 1 percent own their own business.

One of the main obstacles keeping women out of the labor force – apart from the declining economic situation – is the lack of adequate services to help women balance work with their reproductive roles, according to PCBS. Very few establishments in the Palestinian Territory include child-care services. Both the Labor Law and the Civil Administration Law grant women a maternity leave of 10 weeks and a paid nursing hour for the first year after delivery. Many businesses continue to discriminate against married women, however. In the banking sector, especially at Arab Bank and the Cairo Arab Bank, women are asked to submit their resignation when they wed. The government has done nothing to require these banks to change their regulations, despite the law that prohibits such discrimination. The law itself prohibits women from working in jobs that are deemed "dangerous or hard," or that involve night hours, with few exceptions.

Women reportedly earn only 65 percent of men's wages in the West Bank and 77 percent in the Gaza Strip; many women earn less than minimum wage. Many women also work under discriminatory conditions and are denied their rights to maternity leave and weekly and annual holidays and vacations. Finally, time spent crossing Israeli checkpoints to reach job opportunities further extends women's working hours outside the home, leaving them less time to handle their domestic burdens.

Women's organizations have regularly called for an act to protect women from sexual harassment in the workplace, but no such law yet exists. Women find it difficult to make sexual harassment public because they may be shamed or held responsible for the harassment, as social norms tend to further stigmatize the victim.

Women's advocacy groups in general have been more successful in seeking changes in formal legislation than in winning changes in law enforcement practices and cultural attitudes that inform law enforcement. Convincing society to change its perception of a woman's role remains a daunting task.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) should create mechanisms to ensure that all women have access to their full and equal inheritance rights.
  2. The PLC should enact and enforce laws that ensure gender equality in labor and insurance rights.
  3. The Ministry of Education should open up more vocational education training for girls in the Palestinian Territories.
  4. The PLC should draft and ensure the enforcement of laws that protect women against all forms of discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICE

The civil and political rights of all Palestinians are adversely affected by the continued occupation by Israel and the resulting restrictions on their freedom of movement. Women's access to, and full enjoyment of civil liberties and political rights are also affected by the economic, social, and cultural restraints placed on their lives within Palestinian society.

In general, women do not face many barriers to peaceful assembly inside the PA-controlled area and away from Israeli checkpoints. In order to march or demonstrate, women and other groups require permission from the governor, and such permission is usually granted without problem. In some cases, protests against Palestinian government officials are not permitted due to a fear of violence. Palestinian women who assemble in Jerusalem or near Israeli checkpoints to protest the human rights violations of Palestinians may at times be attacked, beaten, imprisoned, or shot at by Israeli army and police.

While women enjoy freedom of expression, they also find it difficult to advocate for their social rights when all of Palestinian society suffers under Israeli occupation. The community may also expect women to prioritize the nationalist movement over their own gender-sensitive issues and problems within Palestinian society. This is an additional pressure on women's rights advocates working locally in areas under armed conflict.

There is a modest degree of freedom of the press in Palestine. Women have their own media outlets and express their views freely. However, women seldom touch upon the issue of sexuality or political violence, as these issues represent social taboos. Women have free access to information via the Internet, mostly at home; young men tend to dominate the majority of public Internet cafes.

Women are guaranteed equal voting rights, though only one legislative election has taken place in Palestine since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority. No municipal elections have been held, though preparations are ongoing for a second legislative council election. Palestinian men and women over 18 can vote and stand for elections. However, prevailing cultural attitudes and stereotypes about women and their abilities, as well as women's limited financial resources, present barriers to women running for office.

Of the 46 judges working in the West Bank 4 are female, as is the case also in Gaza. Out of the 1,332 lawyers in the Palestinian territories, 141 are female. Reasons for the low representation of women in the judiciary include the high costs of legal education and society's expectations concerning the roles of women. Also, women are not often promoted in the judicial hierarchy, and female lawyers are not afforded equal opportunity to train, qualify, and develop skills to be able to compete for high posts.

Available statistics indicate a very low level of representation for women in the upper echelons of public office. Although women represent 13 percent of the staff in administrative positions, they hold only 3 percent of top decision-making posts – such as legislators and upper-level public servants – according to PCBS. There are also only one female ambassador and two women holding the post of minister. As for the 88-seat Palestinian Legislative Council, 5 women were elected, representing slightly less than 6 percent.

No more than 30 women are represented in local governments out of a total of 3,081 officials, and this is only after extensive lobbying by a leading women's organization for a quota system. As no elections have been held for municipalities and local government, these numbers are all the result of appointments by the ministry.

Political parties in the Territory are male dominated, with reportedly 8 women in decision-making posts in the largest party in Palestine (Fatah), versus 188 men. After women demanded a quota of 30 percent in all decision-making bodies in 1996, some parties like the People's Party agreed to grant women 20 percent of seats in their decision-making ranks.

The women's movement enabled Palestinian women to establish the Ministry of Women's Affairs in 2003, in addition to gender desks inside various ministries, and the Women's Affairs Technical Committee. They reversed the regulation requiring women to secure permission of "guardians" to obtain passports and included many provisions to make the Civil Status Law, the Civil Administration Law, the Labor Law, and the Elections Law less discriminatory against women.

A number of women's organizations exist throughout Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza. Since 1991, women have been freely advocating for the rights and concerns of women on economic and social issues, as well as the representation of women in decision-making posts. Hundreds of workshops are held annually to train women and men on gender issues, democracy, and human rights. Women also have their own publications and radio and televised programs through which they are able to express their concerns freely. While 92.8 percent of households in Palestine own a television and 55.9 percent own cable dishes, less than 5 percent of the population tends to watch cultural or educational programs. The publications and newsletters that women's organizations publish are distributed on the Internet or for free through grassroots organizations, which is difficult when freedom of mobility is restricted by Israeli checkpoints. Information dissemination through the Internet has not been very popular in Palestine because only 19.1 percent of Palestinian households own computers and only about 4 percent have an Internet connection.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The international community should work with Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) to resolve existing political disputes in order to end the occupation, ensure peace in the region, and provide a state for Palestinians where all men and women can choose their leaders through free, competitive, and fair elections.
  2. The PA should accept the demands of the Palestinian women's movement to increase the representation of women to at least 30 percent in the PLC and in all branches of government, especially in positions as ministers, deputy ministers, general directors, and heads of units in ministries and offices and in diplomatic missions.
  3. The PA should support political rights training programs for women in government offices to upgrade their leadership skills and capacities.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Palestinian women have one of the highest fertility rates in the region: 5.7 children per woman. Socio-political, cultural, and economic factors influence these high fertility rates, including pressures placed on women to bear more children to compensate for deaths related to armed conflict. The early median age of marriage (18 years), in addition to the low percentage of women in the labor force, are additional contributors to the high fertility rates. Families tend to marry a daughter early when the family is economically unable to provide for her education; high transportation costs are involved in commuting to the nearest secondary school.

Palestinian women do not appear to have much control over decisions concerning their reproductive rights. A survey conducted in 2000 by PCBS shows that only 6.9 percent of women reported being the one to decide how many children to have. Although 99 percent of women say that they are aware of birth control methods, only 51.4 percent of women said that they used contraceptives. Research from Birzeit University shows that there is a link between education and fertility, namely that when women are given an education that leads to income generation, they tend to have lower fertility rates. PCBS reports that the fertility rate of women with less than a secondary education is 6.32 children per woman; for those with a secondary education, 5.57; and for those with more than a secondary education, the rate is 4.52.

Since 1994, the Ministry of Health in Palestine has accorded special importance to the health of women. A strategic national health plan that includes awareness campaigns was initiated to develop health facilities and counseling programs. However, a survey by PCBS in 2001 reported that 88.4 percent of married women surveyed had never heard of the term "reproductive health" and that while 94 percent of women gave birth in hospitals, 73.7 percent did not get post-natal care.

Abortion is not allowed in the Palestinian Territory and is considered a crime unless the physical health of the mother is threatened. Women can obtain abortions in some hospitals inside Israel if they are able to pass the checkpoints and afford the cost. In some cases, women's organizations have helped victims of rape or incest with such expenses and access to hospitals inside Israel.

Women in Palestine seem to be at even more of a disadvantage when it comes to the availability and quality of health services. A 2001 WCLAC report noted a "marked discrimination in favour of men, who receive qualitatively better health services." The report states that 40 percent of adolescent girls reportedly suffer from some form of malnutrition or anemia, coupled with immense social and psychological stress. Women in the reproductive age face malnutrition and anemia that are mainly caused by early marriage and recurrent and successive pregnancies. Many women in the menopause stage of their lives suffer from osteoporosis, which results from malnutrition and poor health habits. No special programs target elderly women who, according to the report, are the most marginalized in society.

Women's access to health care services is additionally challenged by the travel restrictions related to the armed conflict and the Israeli checkpoints. Women sometimes have to wait for long periods of time in order to reach hospitals or medical care inside the PA or Israel that was not available to them in their area. Delays at checkpoints have resulted in numerous unattended births and unnecessary deaths.

Laws do not protect women against such traditional practices as female genital mutilation (FGM). Research by the Culture and Free Thought Association in 1999 to 2000 shows that female genital mutilation is still being practiced in Gaza – especially in areas close to Egypt – although the study does not mention the extent of the practice. Of the 176 individuals interviewed for the study, 64.8 percent believed that there were advantages to having the circumcision performed. Of those mutilated, 88.6 percent reported that the operation was conducted without anesthesia and 86.4 percent said that the tools were not sterilized. Finally, early marriage continues to be a harmful tradition for women in Palestine.

Women are free to participate in and influence a number of media outlets. They have had their own radio and televised programs, which include "No to Silence," a radio program run by the Women's Affairs Technical Committee in Palestine on The National Palestinian Radio. "Bisaraha," a women's television program that focused on women's social problems, was suspended at the beginning of the Intifada because PA government officials deemed the timing inappropriate for such programs, considering the many casualties among Palestinians.

The Palestinian non-government coalition, the Women's Affairs Technical Committee also has a bi-weekly newspaper supplement called Sawt-An-Nissa (the voice of women), which is freely distributed inside one of the widely circulated daily newspapers. In addition to the paper's 20,000 daily circulation, the Women's Affairs Technical Committee prints some 500 more copies of its supplement that are distributed in various geographical areas where the organization holds awareness activities.

Many media outlets discriminate against women and project stereotyped roles of men and women. The Al-Quds newspaper, for example, seldom publishes articles that encourage a more active role for women. Most of its articles encourage the traditional division of labor and are conservative in outlook. However, Al-Ayyam newspapers portray more progressive views.

Female-headed households are among the poorest in Palestine. Research shows that such households represent 9.5 percent of all households and that 73 percent of them live in extreme poverty, struggling to meet the basic needs of nutrition, housing, and clothing. The newly created Ministry of Women's Affairs aims to provide assistance to female heads of households and to the poor in society. It also encourages other government ministries to attend to the needs of poverty-affected populations by offering training, assistance, and employment. A number of international aid organizations also provide assistance to the poor in Palestine in the form of emergency aid programs.

Women and their organizations are free to advocate openly about the promotion and the protection of women's human rights. Women and their organizations, however, find addressing issues such as equal rights in marriage, divorce, and inheritance extremely challenging. They tackle these issues through large coalitions and by working with other civil society institutions to press for change.

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The Palestinian Authority (PA) should increase its budget allocations and services for women's health programs, with a special focus on rural women.
  2. The international donor community should assist the Palestinian Ministry of Health to provide modern and adequate health services for women, especially for illnesses that are currently not treatable inside the PA, such as osteoporosis and breast and cervical cancer.
  3. The Ministry of Health, in cooperation with Palestinian NGOs, should ensure that mothers are provided with adequate prenatal and postnatal care and that women are provided with public education on family planning and knowledge of the impact of early marriage on the health of women and girls.
  4. The government of Israel should ensure that Palestinian women's access to hospitals is not impeded at checkpoints.

AUTHOR: Suheir Azzouni is a Palestinian women's rights leader and an expert on gender and human rights. She established the Women's Affairs Technical Committee (WATC) in the Palestinian Territory, serving as General Director from 1994 to 2001. Ms. Azzouni has worked on gender mainstreaming projects in Bangladesh, Brazil, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Palestine, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunis, and the United States. She holds an MA degree in Gender, Law, and Development from Birzeit University.


NOTES

[Refworld note: source files did not contain inline references to these notes; they have been included to enable further reading and research.]

1. In 1993, the Oslo Accords (representatives from the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel) divided the Palestinian Territory into three areas: Area A would be under Palestinian authority; B under joint authority; and C under Israeli authority until the final negotiations were concluded. Negotiations have broken off, however, and most of the land remains under Israeli control.

2. "Israeli Miltary Checkpoints in the West Bank" (Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction [PECDAR]), http://www.palestinemonitor.org/maps/westbank_checkpoints.htm.

3. According to UNRWA, 12,737 Palestinians were made homeless by Israel's military campaign of house demolitions between September 2000 and 30 April 2003.

4. "Impact of the Israeli Measures on the Economic Conditions of Palestinian Households; 9th Round (April-June 2004)" (Ramallah, Palestine: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics [PCBS], 2004).

5. It is estimated that more than 3 million Palestinians live outside Palestine, in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, North America, and Europe.

6. Dr. Bernard Sabella, lecture, 26 January 2004 (Bethlehem University, Holy Land Christian Ecunemical Foundation, HCEF, 2004). The proportion of Christians was estimated at around 7 percent by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 1997. Sabella says that the number has dropped to less than 2 percent of the population due to emigration after the second Intifada.

7. "International Religious Freedom Report, 2003" (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 18 December 2003).

8. "Men and Women in Palestine" (PCBS), 13, http://www.pcbs.org.

9. The draft constitution views the Palestinian people as part of the Arab and Islamic nations with Arab unity as a goal (Article 1). It considers Islam the official religion of the country and Arabic as the official language while equally revering and respecting Christianity and other religions. Article 2 of the constitution clearly states that the "principles of Islamic Shari'a are a major source of legislation."

10. While Article 10-1 considers human rights and liberties as "binding and must be respected," part 2 of the article states that the state "will strive to join international declarations and conventions that guarantee human rights." Article 11 states that "personal freedom is a guaranteed right." "Appropriate housing" is named as a right of every citizen, and according to Article 23 the state will work to guarantee shelter to those who do not have it.

Education is viewed by the third draft of the constitution as a right and is compulsory until the end of the elementary level and free of charge in all public schools and training institutions. As to the human right to labor, the draft constitution asserts that it views employment as a right, an honor, and a duty and that the state will seek to provide work opportunities to all those able to work.

The draft constitution recognizes the political rights of Palestinians. It states that citizens shall have the right to assume public office, on the basis of competence, merit, and equal opportunity in accordance with the requirements of the law. Furthermore, every citizen has the right to participate in political activity, run for office, or nominate a person who meets the electoral requirements. Additionally, every individual has the right to organize private meetings in accordance with the law and without the presence of the police. Citizens have the right to assemble and organize public meetings and to demonstrate peacefully (Article 26).

11. The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights [PICCR] (Ramallah, Palestine), http://www.piccr.org/about/about.html.

12. One example is Labor Law No. 7 for 2000.

13. "Governmental Report on the Status of Palestinian Women-Five Years After Beijing" (Ramallah: Palestinian National Authority [PNA], Inter-ministerial Commiteee for the Advancement of Women, 2002), 61.

14. "A Report on the Situation of Women's Human Rights during the Second Intifada: Report presented to the UN Human Rights Commission Fact-finding Mission" (Jerusalem: The Women's Center for Legal Advice and Counseling [WCLAC], 16 February 2001), 21.

15. On 31 July 2003, Israel complicated the process further when it passed a law barring family unification for married couples in which one partner holds an Israeli passport and the other is a resident of the Occupied Territories. This new law is retroactive, meaning that thousands of couples who have been living in Israel awaiting a decision on their status will be required to separate or leave Israel. A January 2004 report by B'Tselem and HaMoked examines the issue further.

16. An Israeli identity card is the document that was given to all Palestinians who were in the West Bank and Gaza when Israel occupied the Palestinian territories in 1967. As Israel wanted to annex Jerusalem to Israel, it gave Palestinians in Jerusalem different identity cards classifying them as mere residents of the city and not citizens. West Bankers now hold different kinds of identity cards that do not entitle them even to enter Jerusalem or Israel.

17. The Women's Affairs Technical Committee in Palestine lobbied in 1998 to reverse this discrimination, and a few women were able to change back to their maiden names. However, to maintain one's name in one's passport after marriage has proved to be a lengthy bureaucratic procedure because it also involves the acceptance of the Israelis. Thus, while the Palestinian Ministry of Interior has recognized this as a right for women, few women are willing to go through the strenuous process to maintain their names.

18. Laws based on Jordanian and Egyptian law, however, are not always amended or updated to correspond to the progressive changes that have been made in the laws of Jordan and Egypt today.

19. Article 99 of the Draft Law provides for a Supreme Court composed of a High Constitutional Court; a Court of Cassation to hear civil, criminal, and commercial matters; and a High Court of Justice to hear administrative disputes. The High Constitutional Court has the authority to review laws and rules to ascertain their constitutionality. The Court of Cassation and the High Court of Justice are at the apex of the ordinary judicial structure and serve as the final courts of appeal for issues in their respective departments.

20. "A Report on the Situation ..." (WCLAC), 37.

21. A "crime of honor" is a crime in which a woman is killed due to an allegation that she had sex outside the institution of marriage; it is usually punishable by six months of imprisonment or less.

22. Lynn Welchman, "Extracted Provisions from the Penal Codes of Arab States relevant to 'crimes of honour'" (London: School of Oriental and Asian Studies), http://www.soas.ac.uk/honourcrimes/Mat_ArabLaws.htm.

23. Chapter 7 of the proposed law punishes crimes of rape with imprisonment for a period of time; if the perpetrator is a supervisor or a close relative or a guardian, his punishment would be imprisonment for life. However, engaging in a sexual relation with a girl aged over 18 years is also considered a crime for both the male and the female even if the sexual relation takes place with the consent of the female (Article 258). If the perpetrator is a guardian, supervisor or close relative, he will be imprisoned for no less than five years. Homosexuality is also a crime punishable by law. Sexual harassment, including that which causes psychological harassment, is punishable by law according to the proposed law (Article 264 – 1). Prostitution and adultery are also punishable, and men and women are both equally liable to prosecution.

24. Administrative detention is detention without charge or trial authorized by an administrative order rather than by judicial decree. Since the beginning of March 2003, Israel has held more than 1,000 Palestinians in administrative detention according to B'tselem, an Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories (http/www.btselem.org/English/Administrative_Detention/Index.asp).

25. According to figures provided by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson, the IDF was holding, as of 7 July 2004, 737 Palestinian administrative detainees.

26. Ninth Annual Report (Ramallah, Palestine: The Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizens' Rights [PICCR] 2003), http://www.piccr.org/report/annual03jan/summary.pdf.

27. In 1995 women's organizations were able to reverse a discriminatory regulation that required women to have the consent of their guardians to obtain passports.

28. There have been some cases in which couples secretly married each other twice, once the Muslim way and the other the Christian way. Such alliances are more frequent in cities, especially in Ramallah. However, in the case of divorce, the Muslim divorce laws prevail. There have been no documented cases of Muslims converting to Christianity.

29. "Letters from the Ministry of Interior to the Center" (WATC, Archives, Letter no. 528, 2 February 1996).

30. See http://www.law.emory.edu/IFL/legal/palestine.htm

Gaza: Marriage age: 15 for females and 16 for males. Guardianship: Guardian gives consent, and if there is no guardian, the Qadi assumes this role. Polygamy: Laws specifically permit a woman to stipulate in a marriage contract that her husband will not take another wife while married to her and to petition for divorce on the basis of this stipulation if he proceeds to break the terms of the stipulation. Divorce: Women may petition for divorce on the grounds of injury. Post-divorce maintenance: No compensation for arbitrary talaq and no arrears predating submission of the maintenance claim. Custody of children: Hanafi rules, allowing limited extension of mother's custody of girls up to eleven years and boys up to nine.

31. See http://www.law.emory.edu/IFL/legal/palestine.htm.

Also in effect in Gaza are the Law of Shari'a Court Procedure No.12/1965 (Gaza Strip), Law No.13/1962 on the Obligatory Bequest (Gaza Strip), and Administrative Decision No. 78/1995 of the Qadi al-Quda (on the age of marriage-Gaza Strip).

32. See http://www.law.emory.edu/IFL/legal/palestine.htm.

West Bank: Legal age for marriage: The Personal Status Jordanian Law currently in effect in the West Bank allows the marriage of girls at the age of 14 years and 7 months and boys at the age of 16. Married women's rights: Under the Jordanian laws still in effect in the Occupied Territory, a woman has the right to prompt and deferred dower, in addition to keeping all income from her own labor and inheritance, while the duty of the husband is to provide for his wife and children. In reality, most working women provide for their families, yet few continue to benefit from substantive dowers or compensation for their financial contributions that will sustain them if they find themselves divorced. Some commentators have noted that enforcement of provisions regarding a husband's repayment to a wife may be weak, but there are no studies that document the extent of enforcement of legal provisions and protections to women. Polygamy is also permitted: A man can take up to four wives provided that he gives them equal treatment; however, no mechanisms ensure such equal treatment.

Divorce: Divorce is governed by both statutory and Shari'a law. Under the former, Article 108 of the Personal Status law of 1976 provides for a separation known as the Mokhala'a provision, whereby the husband's consent is required for the marriage to be dissolved in this manner, and the wife is required to pay back any dowry she had received. Divorce in this way, however, is conditional upon the husband's consent. Under the latter, Shari'a, there are two types of divorce, a talaq or a khul'. Most marriages are terminated through the pronouncement by a husband of a talaq, which under the current law can take place outside a court. Talaq is the repudiation of the wife by the husband-the wife has no say in it. Although the Jordanian Personal Status Provisional Law of 2001 granted women the right to divorce their husband under a provision known as khul', this law is not in effect in the West Bank. Upon divorce, although women are entitled to maintenance for one year, they are not entitled to the share of wealth accumulated during marriage. However, no clear mechanism ensures that women are receiving their due maintenance because of the weak enforcement of the law due to the current political situation.

33, A woman can add a number of conditions in her marriage contract including the right to divorce, financial compensations in case of divorce, and access to labor and education. Women seldom take advantage of such rights provided by Islamic Shari'a due to prevailing social norms and traditions. Men are usually shamed if women enter such provisions in their marriage contract and thus women find themselves vulnerable after divorce.

34. "Woman and Work in Palestine: A study in Paid and Unpaid Labor from the Time-Use Survey 1999-2000" (in Arabic) (Ramallah, Palestine: Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics).

35. The almost all-male structure of law enforcement in Palestine renders it difficult for women to turn to this structure for help, although there have been several cases in which women have been placed in prison so as to protect their lives against male relatives who wanted to harm them. Several women's organizations offer help-line services to victims of violence but they all fall short on protecting them because the organizations lack resources.

36. Law No. 93/2001 (Articles 239, 240, 241, 242, and 243).

37. There are yet no provisions in any approved Palestinian law that protect women against violence in the workplace. There is also no clear provision that deals with forms of sexual harassment in the streets and other public places, although if women report a violation, the police would place the harasser in prison for a period of time.

Articles 257, 258, 259, and 260 of the proposed Criminal Law speak about punishments of rape and incest. Battering is punishable if it leads to abortion. In that case, a violator is to be imprisoned for a period of 10 years according to Article 249 of this proposed law. A woman is punished by imprisonment if she aborts upon her own will, unless her health was endangered or if the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.

38. The Women's Affairs Technical Committee in Palestine issues a biweekly newspaper that voices the concerns of women, and the Working Women's Committees also host various publications about issues of violence against women.

39. These include the Jordanian laws in effect in the West Bank and the Law No.1/1965 on the application of the Shari'a rules to property in effect in the Gaza Strip.

40. http/

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