RIGHTS: Islam Can be Liberating for Women, Says Palestinian Activist

By Diana Cariboni Reprint | | Print |

Diana Cariboni

LONDON, Aug 31 2004 (IPS) - “I think Islam can be very liberating for women if truly followed,” said young Palestinian activist Rana Abu Ghazaleh in an interview with IPS on the conflict in the Israeli-occupied territories, the rise in fundamentalism, and women’s rights.

“I think Islam can be very liberating for women if truly followed,” said young Palestinian activist Rana Abu Ghazaleh in an interview with IPS on the conflict in the Israeli-occupied territories, the rise in fundamentalism, and women’s rights.

Ghazaleh, 24, lives in east Jerusalem (“the capital of Palestine,” she clarifies). She has a degree in architecture and city planning from Birzeit University in Ramallah, which she earned despite the continuous Israeli roadblocks, in which she faced the risk of being killed and spent hour after hour just waiting to be allowed through.

Perhaps that says something about the determination of this member of the Steering Committee of ‘Countdown 2015: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All’, an international conference that opened Tuesday in London with the participation of 700 activists, experts and legislators from around the world.

In the conference it is not possible to discuss issues like mother child health, the right to contraception, or unsafe abortions without questions of local conflicts, religious tensions and hurdles to development arising.

And that is especially the case when it comes to the Palestinian territories.

GHAZALEH: With the road blockades, checkpoints and the wall that is currently being built (by Israel), putting under siege many areas of Jerusalem and the West Bank, women are facing major health hazards, trying to obtain health services.

Since 2002 there have been at least 35 cases of women dying at checkpoints, because they weren’t allowed to reach the hospital where they were to give birth.

Young women face the inability to move from one area to another…even to attend high school or university. With the wall being built, around 174,000 people are going to be isolated, on the outskirts of Jerusalem. And at least half of them are women who are not allowed to enter to go to hospitals which are mainly located in Jerusalem, because the city will be under siege.

IPS: What has your life been like facing these challenges?

GHAZALEH: I had to face daily challenges of crossing checkpoints to go to my university, facing the hazard of dying. I had to commute back and forth since the start of the second Intifada (popular Palestinian uprising) in September 2000. But a year ago, I was no longer able to do so, because of the time consumed at the checkpoints, so I had to take a room at the university in Ramallah.

However, many young women are not able to do so due to cultural norms or because they cannot afford the cost.

IPS: What is the situation of women within the family?

GHAZALEH: Ironically, this situation is running to the better in some cases for women, because they are currently receiving much more education than young men, many of whom have to drop out of school because they must work and support their families.

We have been able to obtain a law that increases the minimum age of marriage from 16 to 18, and now young pregnant women can complete their education and stay in school. But within families there is still a lot to do to really ensure that women have a roll in empowerment and building their society.

IPS: Are there still basic violations of the rights of women, like “honour killings”?

GHAZALEH: The latest statistics indicate that 38 women were killed in honour crimes in the space of a year. That is significant in a small population like that of Palestine (two million people).

This has to do with misconceptions and misuse of religious beliefs. A woman’s honour is still related to her body, and a man is not treated in the same way.

A woman can go to the authorities to denounce rapes or assaults, but there are certain cultural norms that do not allow them to do so, and force them to remain silent. We are trying to break this silence.

IPS: Have the authorities done anything to reform laws that tolerate such violations?

GHAZALEH: There have been certain adjustments to the law related to honour crimes, but it is still the Jordanian law, part of which is from a very old, and old- fashioned, Turkish law. It still separates and discriminates between the rights of women and the rights of men.

This reflects on the issue of women’s health, their ability to obtain a decent life, a decent education, and even to obtain genuine information about themselves, their sexuality, about everything related to their bodies, and to choices, even in terms of choosing a husband.

In some areas this phenomenon is diminishing. But women still do not have the right to really choose. There is a great deal of community pressure.

There is also a lack of awareness among young women about the law, about religion or their ability to negotiate within the cultural context, which is very important.

IPS: Does your family differ from that pattern?

GHAZALEH: No, no. As a young person I learnt from my house that nothing comes easy. If you don’t negotiate things, you will loose your right to choose.

My family, my father especially, comes from a religious background. I even memorised parts of the Koran when I was younger. But this helped me a lot in realising…that the Koran and Islamic religion give women many rights that have not yet been achieved at the level of government and policy.

I was able to…see the gap between culture and what is perceived as coming from the Islamic religion and the true, genuine teachings of Islam, which I think are very liberating for women if truly followed.

IPS: But that view is not the one that prevails in most Muslim countries, nor in the Palestinian territories. Isn’t fundamentalism on the rise in society there, on the political plane as well as in social and human relationships?

GHAZALEH: I believe these groups of fundamentalists who speak in the name of Islam are totally apart from it. They attempt to manipulate young women and men, and to draw them onto the path of violence, rather than negotiation.

Fighting the system shouldn’t be through violence towards civilians or unarmed people. It has to follow a clear agenda, and certainly there isn’t a clear agenda even for the people who are fundamentalists.

There is truly a rise in the fundamentalist approach, and certainly young people are not fully aware that this conception tends to destroy rather than build. They follow them because they don’t have the ability to question them. When someone comes to tell them “these are the words of God”, they are unable to debate these things.

IPS: This is particularly curious in a country which has such a long and strong tradition of non-religious political movements. Why do you think this is happening?

GHAZALEH: When people are denied a home, an education, the right to have a roof above their heads, to live in dignity, they lose their sense of security, so people try to find a source of security, which is usually a spiritual one, religion or a certain cult or group. They need to feel protected….appreciated and empowered.

I would never underestimate this concept of power…(in terms of) political or religious (beliefs). This is, in my view, why young people have been driven into this route, where they are easily ruined, and influenced.

IPS: Is the growth of radical fundamentalism a failure of Palestinian political parties?

GHAZALEH: No. In first place it is a failure of the occupation. We always hear that the Israeli government wants an end to the violence, etc. End the occupation and we would end this. Give us basic human rights: freedom of mobility and the right to work, to obtain a home and a decent living – these are supposed to be guaranteed even by an occupying force, and this is not done.

And it’s a loop, it keeps going on in this endless circle of violence from both parties.

IPS: What do you do as an activist?

GHAZALEH: I work at the Palestinian International Peace and Cooperation Centre, based in Jerusalem, a research peace organisation that deals with policy and settling strategies, mainly involving urban planning for the future of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a divided city, and this enormously affects the way that people live, and the functioning of the city as a whole. The city should be open, undivided and shared by all the people of the world, since it has such a symbolic value.

We have a programme with Israeli academics, trying to affect decision-making. We try to tell them that it is not just us who are going to be destroyed, that this loop of violence is going to destroy both communities in the end.

In one of our programmes with young Israeli architecture students, it was amazing to see the transformation in the ideology of these young participants. They are so sheltered from the reality that is just across from them.

(Through our programmes) they were able to see that young Palestinian people were living in such deprived conditions, and this has certainly affected the way they perceive their own lives and relationships.

We are trying to actually transform, step by step, the political views of these youngsters in Jerusalem, because 60 percent of the population of Israel was in agreement with the war, and this tells you something about destruction, fear and ignorance in both communities. It has been a transforming experience for both.

IPS: Don’t you sometimes feel that efforts like yours fall in a political vacuum of a conflict with no solution?

GHAZALEH: Yes, we always have these questions. But we always say to light one candle is a thousand times better than darkness.