WUNRN
Gaza - Female Mediators Stand Up for Women’s Rights
A Palestinian woman holds an umbrella to cover herself from rain as she
makes her way to fill containers with water in Shajaiya neighborhood, in the
east of Gaza City, Oct. 19, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Mohammed Salem)
Author: Hana Salah - March 9, 2015
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Women in Palestinian society are ashamed to
discuss their problems with the male elders in charge of mediation
committees. However, today, things have become easier for women, as the
first female mediators have pushed forward social reform and now defend women's
rights in tribal councils headed by men. Gazans go to these councils to settle
their family problems and avoid going to court, where the resolution process is
much longer and complicated.
Over the past couple of years, female mediators have increasingly emerged
in the Gaza Strip. Some inherited the profession from their fathers and
grandfathers, while others possessed innate wisdom and statesmanship. After
training, they joined Gaza's mediation committees, where citizens often
take their issues instead of to the judiciary or police. Female
mediators are often asked to intervene to solve problems within a family,
such as settling a dispute between a husband and his wife.
Maitre Abdul Moneim al-Tahrawi, president of a project to train Gaza's
mediators at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution,
told Al-Monitor, “The center held legal training sessions. The
mediators intervene in a friendly manner on many issues regarding
women — such as matters related to residency, inheritance and economic or
physical violence practiced against women in Gaza — and try to settle it
before referring [these issues] to the law.”
Tahrawi said, “We have formed a social committee for the mediators at
the center, to which women can resort to for various problems. The
mediators resort to the center’s [female] lawyers to present the women’s
issues before the courts, for a minimal cost and sometimes free of charge,
since most women are unable to raise such issues on their own.”
Faten Harb, 41, is one of Gaza's most prominent mediators dealing with
women's issues. She told Al-Monitor about her experience. “I participated,
along with a number of women, in extensive sessions with women’s rights
associations to develop our knowledge in the legal and social reform fields. We
then joined the social reform mission,” she said.
“The need for active social reformers has become crucial in the Palestinian
society in Gaza, due to the increasing female problems, especially after the
recent Israeli war. The number of widows after the
war, the divorce rate and marital problems have
increased as a result of the difficult economic conditions, and the disputes
over the custody of children,” Harb said.
“Battered and marginalized women now have the power to reveal all the
details of their problems to female mediators. Thus their rights have now been
delivered, contrary to what was previously done when men had the power to
appeal to other men in the reform committees and convince them of their point
of view,” she said.
In Palestinian society, it is often preferred for women not to speak for
themselves about their problems before the police or male mediators. In these
situations, a man is usually appointed to speak on their behalf. Rima, 41, who
refused to disclose her full name, approached the female mediators in her quest
to find a solution for her daughter, whose husband refuses to give her money or
grant her a divorce.
She told Al-Monitor, “I went to see one of the elders of a committee of the
Islamic Jihad movement to solve my problem, and although he believed me, he
told me, ‘Go home and send your son or husband or brother to speak in front of
the rest of the committee about your problem, because, after all, you are a
woman.’”
He told her that “no one will be able to explain my problem as well as I
did to the rest of the committee, but he said that a man must be present. My
husband is sick and my son is very young and he is not aware of the entire
details. This is why I resorted to the female mediators.”
Women are embarrassed to mention many issues before the judiciary or the
police. Mary, 27, a pseudonym, was sexually assaulted by her husband. She was
not able to stand before the judiciary and file a report against her husband,
so she went to female mediators to solve her problem.
Harb said, “One of the most difficult legal issues faced by women in the
Gaza Strip is the issue of inheritance. This is why the Palestinian women's
rights associations work on training the female mediators: to be able to handle
issues of inheritance from a legal perspective.” She noted that the patriarchal
society refuses to give women a share of the inheritance, although Islamic law ensures
women’s right to it. Sometimes a female’s male siblings have the entire right
to inheritance, while their female siblings remain poor and deprived of it.
Here lies our job in fixing this problem.”
The female mediators form a link between women who have filed complaints
and the police department. Gaza City's mediator, Umm Majed Hassouna, 51, told
Al-Monitor, “The general-director of the police entrusted [me] to resolve
issues that are submitted to the police, which are based on conjugal or family
disputes,” noting that “some of the issues that are presented to the
mediators can be controversial and legally complex, so we refer them to
the [female] lawyers at the center in order to find a proper solution.”
According to the female mediators, they often face difficulties in the
workplace, since certain male mediators cannot accept the presence of
female competitors or colleagues. Harb said that she faced many difficulties in
the beginning due to her physical appearance. “I never felt that my beauty could
ever be an obstacle. But society’s perception stems from male power, which sees
women as weak creatures who do not know their rights. Society does not want
women to be strong and rejects powerful women,” she said.
According to the Ministry of Local Government, 777 men are employed as mediators
in the Gaza Strip, specializing in reform or government assistance. However,
the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution has only trained
80 female mediators since 2010.
Harb believes that the values of Arab societies contradict the principles
of Islamic law. “Islam is a flexible religion and the holy prophet allowed his
wives to do commercial work, like Khadijah. He also asked for their opinions in
several affairs like he did with his wife Umm Salma. However, our society is
far from being similar to religion; it perceives women as inferiors, and
rejects our presence in leadership positions.”
Despite this significant leap for women in the field of social reform in
Gaza, women still lack government and legislative support
to establish their own facilities where women could go in cases of violence.