WUNRN
http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/03/palestinian-women-victims-on-many-fronts/
Palestine – Women Experience Compounded,
Protracted Hardships,Victimization
Islam Iliwa lost her home
and cleaning products business in Gaza following an Israeli bombardment. She is
one of many single, divorced mothers struggling to survive under the siege.
Credit: Mel Frykberg/IPS
By Mel Frykberg
GAZA CITY, Mar 21 2015 (IPS) - Israel’s siege of Gaza,
aided and abetted by the Egyptians in the south, has aggravated the plight of
Gazan women, and the Jewish state’s devastating military assault on the coastal
territory over July and August 2014 exacerbated the situation.
In
a resolution approved by the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women on Mar. 20,
Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian territory was blamed
for “the grave situation of Palestinian women.”
The
45-member commission adopted the resolution – which was sponsored by Palestine
and South Africa – by a vote of 27-2 with 13 abstentions. The United States and
Israel voted against, while European Union members abstained.
“Women’s
suffering doubled in the Gaza Strip in particular due to the consequences of
Israel’s latest offensive, as they have been enduring hard and complicated
living conditions,” said Gaza’s Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in a
statement
released on Mar. 8 to mark International Women’s Day.
“During
the 50-day Israeli offensive, women were exposed to the risks of death or
injury because of Israel’s excessive use of lethal force as well as Israel’s
blatant violations of the principles of distinction and proportionality under
customary international humanitarian law,” said PCHR.
During
the war, 293 women were killed (18 percent of the civilian victims) and 2,114
wounded, with many sustaining permanent disabilities.
However,
inherent cultural, religious and legal implications have also played a part in
making life untenable for Gaza’s female population.
The
world of 40-year-old Islam Iliwa from Zeitoun in Gaza City was shattered during
a night of heavy bombardment last year during the war.
The
divorced mother of three children, aged 10 to 16, lost nearly everything when
an Israeli air strike destroyed her home and with it the business that she had
worked so hard for years to build up.
Iliwa
had been living in Dubai when she and her husband divorced, a move that makes
it particularly hard for women to reintegrate into conservative Arab society.
The
divorce was traumatic but Iliwa was determined to make a go of her life and
moved back to Gaza in 2011 with the money she had saved up while working in
Dubai.
Under
Islamic law, the father would have been given automatic custody of their three
children at their respective ages.
However,
Iliwa decided she would pay her husband to sign custody of the children over to
her as well as forfeit her rights to child support.
“I
told him I would survive without him and make a good life for myself and my
children,” Iliwa told IPS.
“On
arriving back in Gaza, I poured my life savings of 20,000 dollars into a small
business which sold cleaning materials,” she said.
“In
a good month before the war I was able to earn about 2,400 dollars and my
business was growing. However, my home and the little factory I built were both
destroyed during the Israeli bombing attack. My son Muhammad was also injured,”
recalled Iliwa, as she broke down and wept at the bitter memory.
Iliwa
and her three children were forced to flee to a U.N. shelter, along with
hundreds of thousands of other desperate Gazans.
When
it was safe to leave the shelter, after a ceasefire had been reached, Iliwa and
her children were destitute and homeless.
However,
the plucky mother of three has been able to rent a new home and slowly rebuild
her business with the help of Oxfam, even though she is now making a fraction
of what she used to.
The collective suffering of Palestinian women extends beyond
death and injury, with forcible displacement and surviving in overcrowded
shelters with inadequate facilities, including inadequate clean drinking water
and food, lack of privacy and hygiene issues.
A
rise in domestic violence has aggravated the situation with women having little
recourse to societal or legal support with many Palestinians believing that
this is a private matter between spouses.
Under
Palestinian law, the few men that are arrested for “honour killings” receive
little jail time and women beaten by husbands would have to be hospitalised for
at least 10 days before police would consider intervening.
According
to PCHR’s documentation, 16 women were killed last year in different contexts
related to gender-based violence.
Last
year, U.N. Women in Palestine released a statement
saying that they it was “seriously concerned” about the killings, highlighting
that the “worrying increase in the rate of femicide demonstrated a widespread
sense of impunity in killing women”.
A
2012 survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) said that 37
percent of Palestinian women were subject to some form of violence at the hands
of their husbands, with the highest rate in Gaza at 58.1 percent and the lowest
in Ramallah at 14.1 percent.
Gaza’s
Palestinian Centre for Democracy and Conflict Resolution (PCDCR) explained that
the difficult economic circumstances, poverty and unemployment, were the
reasons behind the spike in domestic violence.
“These
factors reflect negatively on men’s psychological status. They became more
stressed and angry as they can’t support their families financially, live in
crowded conditions and have no privacy,” PCDCR told IPS.
“There
has also been a reversal in gender roles where women accept low-paying jobs
which men consider below their status as the head of families or single
women/widows are forced to take on the breadwinner role.
“This
has all fed into men’s feelings of inadequacy and to them taking their
frustrations out on their female relatives,” PCDCR told IPS.