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Middle East | Palestine | Activism

#BALANCEFORBETTER: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

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The Arab Women’s Organization of Jordan (AWO) held a conference on March 6 to shed light on issues relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. Manal Al-Taleb, Program Coordinator for the Women’s Political Participation Program at the AWO, told The Media Line that the event focused on issues relating to labor law in the context of women’s rights, as well as social protection for women, girls and Syrian refugees in Jordan. It was held under the patronage of the minister of social development, and many members of parliament were scheduled to attend, as was the UN
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

Women’s flotilla to Gaza is more than mere symbolism

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Amal and Zaytouna, a flotilla of two boats with all-women crews and passengers, set sail from Barcelona en route to besieged Gaza in another maritime attempt to break Israel's illegal blockade on the tiny strip of Palestinian coastal territory. This is a place where 1.7 million Palestinians have been locked for nearly a decade in what many describe as the "world's largest open air prison", a human laboratory that Israel uses periodically to test its weapons. As with previous civilian voyages to Gaza, these boats are carrying prominent international figures who hope to use their stature t
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

Barcelona Hosts Women’s Boat to Gaza (WBG) for their inaugural journey

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From September 12-14, the sailing vessels Amal-Hope and Zaytouna-Oliva will moor at Bosch i Alsina dock in the port of Barcelona where various events (concerts, talks, nonviolent workshops, a street parade and visits to the boats) will take place as farewell for the women leaving to break the blockade on Gaza. According to Laura Arau, with Rumba a Gaza, Spain’s WBG partner, the launch point from Barcelona has special meaning for the community there.  “We have been a sister city with Gaza since 1998, yet we have been unable to visit with one another,” she says.  “We want our sisters
Middle East | Palestine | Sports

Palestinian swimmer overcomes odds to make a splash at Rio Olympics

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A whistle blows in the echo-filled swimming pool and Mary al-Atrash plunges into the water, barely making a splash. She gracefully glides across the crisp blueness and then flips and turns, before making her way back. It is 8.30 in the morning and the 22-year-old Palestinian swimmer is training hard ahead of the Rio Olympics in August, where she will compete against the world’s best swimmers in the 50 metres freestyle. But her preparations for the long-awaited international sporting event have been at best bumpy, hampered by her hometown’s own limited means, as well as the fraught reali
Middle East | Palestine | Culture

How this new divorce law further marginalizes Gaza’s women

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The Higher Sharia Court Council in the Gaza Strip issued a decision Feb. 7 granting a husband the right to file for divorce if his wife subjects him to verbal or physical abuse. The ruling has angered the feminist community, because it gives the husband the opportunity to divorce his wife while denying her rights to which she would otherwise be entitled in a divorce. Prior to the decision, applying for a divorce based on verbal or physical abuse had been limited to women. This was so simply because men can divorce without providing a reason or even filing suit in court. If a wif
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

In Gaza, Bicycles Are a Battleground for Women Who Dare to Ride

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The four women pedaling bicycles with jammed gears and wobbly chains up Salahuddin Road,Gaza’s bumpy main highway, on a recent morning caused quite a stir. The driver of a three-wheeled tuk-tuk slowed down and a teenager on a horse-drawn cart sped up to match the women’s pace. A jeep filled with Hamas gunmen beeped and cheered as it passed, and a pack of men on motorbikes left a wake of catcalls. The sight of women on two wheels was so unusual that Alaa, 11, who was grazing sheep on the grassy median, assumed they were foreigners and shouted out his limited English vocabulary: “Hello! O
Middle East | Palestine | Leadership

How one Palestinian minister is empowering women

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Since the Palestinian Nakba, Palestinian women have faced countless challenges and abuses, starting with being forced to seek asylum in other countries following Israel's occupation of Palestine in 1948, all the way to the current daily violations such as killings and arrests, perpetrated against them by Israel. Haifa al-Agha, Palestinian minister of women's affairs, talks to Al-Monitor from her office at the ministry in Gaza City about the challenges women face in Palestinian society. She said the accumulation of violence against Palestinian women has made them tough as nails and an exam
Middle East | Palestine | Media

Women journalists raise their voices in Gaza

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In male-dominated Palestinian society, female journalists in the Gaza Strip have been striving to get ahead. By improving the image of women in the various media outlets and increasing local coverage of women's issues, they hope to make society recognize that women are essential partners to men, strengthen the role of women's organizations and develop the role of female Palestinian journalists. In the large media sector of the Gaza Strip, which is a hotbed of events that constantly attract the world’s attention, there are only five women-focused media outlets trying to find their niche. M
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

This Woman Is Using Graffiti to Change the Way Her Country Thinks About Girls

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On a concrete wall in the alleyway of a Palestinian refugee camp in Irbid, Jordan, Laila Ajjawi works quickly, switching between the three spray-paint bottles that sit at her feet. Within 20 minutes, she has scrawled Arabic letters onto the veil of a girl with cavernous eyes and painted a feather quill by her side. Her mural is nearly complete. Draped in a dark, paint-splattered cloak with a black respirator strapped over her hijab, Laila, 25, looks like a bona fide superhero. The petite graffiti artist even has a superpower: talking through walls. "My energy will be reflected from walls to p
Middle East | Palestine | Crimes

New hotline offers support to Gaza’s blackmail victims

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The all-female police unit in Gaza launched a campaign in October dubbed “We Are With You” to protect girlsof high school age and older from blackmail by men. Lt. Col. Nariman Adwan, chief of Gaza's all-female police unit, told Al-Monitor, “The campaign’s primary objective is to provide women with a safe haven if ever blackmailed. We have established a free hotline and held awareness and guidance lectures that targeted schools, universities, wedding halls and workplaces such as hospitals and factories. The main problem that women face is the lack of a safe haven and confiden
Middle East | Palestine | Society

Meet Palestine’s first female marriage officiant

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Mohammed Talib and his fiancee Zanin Samara, from Beit Ur al-Fauqa in Ramallah, and their families did not seem surprised at the sight of a woman preparing to marry them in the Ramallah Sharia court on Sept. 30. Tahrir Hamad, from Silwad, just northeast of Ramallah, is the first female Sharia marriage judge in Palestine. On July 23 the Supreme Judicial Council licensed her to conduct marriages. Some social and religious groups welcomed the news, while others opposed it. Talib graduated with a sociology degree from Birzeit University. He did not object to a woman officiating his marriage.
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

Palestinian women ‘show solidarity’ defending access to al-Aqsa mosque, clash with Jewish activists

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Dressed in hijabs, Huda Abu Sneineh and a group of Palestinian women congregate daily in an Old City alleyway just a few steps from an Israeli police barrier that blocks them from one of holiest sites to Islam. When an observant Jew strides up the stone path with a yarmulke and prayer fringes, the women shout out “Allahu akbar” and wave handbook-sized texts of the Koran at the passerby. “It’s because they hate Muslims,” Abu Sneineh explains. “They want to take our mosque.” Known as the mourabitat, Arabic for “the steadfast,” the female activists
Middle East | Palestine | Leadership

Female athletes keep ball rolling in Palestine

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At the age of 18, Mariam Hamdan already has overcome intense pressure and stigma in order to become an advocate for women’s soccer in the West Bank. “I will never quit playing soccer. A day will come when my daughters and I will play together in the stadium,” Hamdan said as she described her passion for the sport. Hamdan hails from the village of Dura, north of Ramallah. Her family has pressured her to quit playing soccer, in keeping with the customs of her town, given that she is no longer a child. She has made concessions, such as leaving the high-school team in the past year
Middle East | Palestine | Activism

Palestinian women rescue child from attack by Israeli soldier

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This video shows several women preventing an Israeli soldier from abducting a Palestinian child in the village of Nabi Saleh in the occupied West Bank on Friday. The footage, shot by Bilal Tamimi, shows a masked soldier assaulting a child whose arm is in a cast. The child is clearly distressed. A man screams at the soldier “he’s a boy! he’s a boy!” but the soldier continues his attack. A short time later, several women appear and pull the soldier off the boy, braving his blows, but preventing the abduction from taking place. One of the women also pulls the mask off the woul

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