Palestine: ‘Femicide’ on the
Rise in Conflict Zone
Photo:
Tom Spender/IRIN |
Palestinian women can be
murdered for having sex before or outside marriage under the guise of
'family honour' |
RAMALLAH, 7 March 2007 (IRIN) - Three
Palestinian women were shot dead in the northern Gaza Strip last month – rumours
say it had to do with ‘honour’.
The corpses of the women – Ibtisam
Mohammad Musallam Abu Qeinas, 31; Samira Tahani Debeiky, 45; and Amani Khamis
Hosari, 40 – were found within a 24-hour period in Beit Lahiya and Gaza City,
leaving residents shocked.
“People are saying it was an honour killing,
that the women were of loose morals. They were not related to one another – but
they were all killed in the same way. It’s really shocking,” said Mona Shawa,
director of the women’s unit at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza.
So-called honour crimes are the murders of women who are thought to have
brought shame on their families by, for example, having sex before marriage or
even for having been the victim of rape or incest.
In 2006, 17
Palestinian women were reported killed in so-called honour crimes – 12 in the
Gaza Strip and five in the West Bank.
“The general atmosphere here in
Gaza is encouraging this – there is no respect for law, no punishment of
criminals and everyone has a gun,” Shawa added.
Soraida Abed Hussein, a
researcher at the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC) in
Ramallah, uses the word ‘femicide’ to describe honour killings.
She says
Palestinian society is undergoing radical change as a result of the daily
violence of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – and women are suffering as a
result.
“Being under oppressive occupation gives you a feeling of low
self-esteem, of being less intelligent, less powerful, less of everything,” she
said.
Radically changing society
“That hits the
masculine identity – and women pay the price. Men internalise the values of
violence. They replicate the roles of occupier and victim. It will become part
of the culture – part of how you see people and they see you. We are now at the
stage where it is radically changing our society and structures.”
Hussein told IRIN that the numbers of ‘femicide’ cases had increased
from pre-intifada (Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation) levels and
that the true number of killings is not known because they are not reported.
“We can’t rely on the police. And if you look in the court registry of
deaths, there are sometimes women whose cause of death is entered as ‘Qada wa
Qader’ [literally ‘fate’] – death by natural causes. But the women are young,”
she said.
In a report released last November, Human Rights Watch
criticised the Palestinian authorities for not doing enough to protect women and
said the conflict with Israel and the economic crisis stemming from a year-long
international economic boycott of the Palestinian Authority (PA) were no excuse.
Article 340 of Jordanian Penal Law, in force in the West Bank, rules
that a man who kills or attacks his wife or a female relative while she is
committing adultery is exempt from punishment. In Gaza, the Egyptian penal code
also provides reductions in sentence.
Men internalise the values of
violence. They replicate the roles of occupier and victim. It will become
part of the culture. |
“This law does not apply if the woman finds
a man committing an affair – because the woman herself is the honour. Her
movements are observed and controlled for the sake of controlling her
sexuality,” said Hussein.
But ‘femicide’ in Palestinian society is a
sensitive issue to campaign on, Hussein said, because criticising the society
plays into the hands of those who say Arab culture is primitive and violent.
“We leave ourselves vulnerable to those who want to say our society is
bad and we are also condemned by those inside our society who say such things
should not be brought into the open,” she said.
“At the same time, we
are under occupation – so should we be fighting against the occupiers or our
husbands? Even if we want to campaign, we are so busy reacting to the new crises
in our daily lives that it is hard to get organised.”
These pressures
are leading Palestinian society to entrench itself in its traditions at the
expense of individual wellbeing, Hussein said.
“In our workshops we ask
women what they want and they find it difficult to answer. In the society now
everyone watches everyone else and talks about those who don’t respect the code.
We put each other under pressure. Women’s wishes are no longer articulated and
they no longer say what they want or think,” she said.
Dr Miriam Salih,
the Hamas Minister of Women’s Affairs, said Palestinians themselves could decide
on a change to the law on honour crimes.
"Our main priority is to face
occupation. When we have an independent state, we will put the law before the
people to decide,” Salih said.