'Women in Gaza': Siege, not Hamas, is the problem
Reageer (0)BBC explores what life is like under an Islamist political regime for five Palestinian women in Gaza City.
22-3-2010
For Majia Shawa, 29, she has not felt any "direct pressure" from Hamas to change how she dresses or lives her life: "I still wear the same clothes, I don't wear the veil, I go to places with men and women."
Says Shawa, several Hamas policies aimed at making social society more Islamic - like the recent ban on male hair dressers - have been lip service as best. Shawa says her hair dresser was and is a man: "I saw him the other day and he said: 'Yes, I'm still here, it's my job!' " Of Gaza's future, Shawa says:
"There may not be many [religious extremists] now, but the numbers will increase unless conditions in Gaza improve... The closure of Gaza creates the perfect conditions for breeding an extremist mentality. I am not optimistic about the coming generation, unless Gaza opens up."
The other women agree with Shawa - life is difficult in Gaza, but it isn't Hamas' doing. Mona Ahmad al-Shawa, who runs the women's unit a the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, says the siege and war have destroyed lives, but Hamas has actually ruled in women's favor:
"You can't imagine how hard it is to be a disabled woman in this society. Or a widow. Our Sharia law means that a widowed woman will lose custody of her children when a boy reaches nine years old and a girl 11. Since the war, Hamas has ruled that a widow can keep her children if she doesn't remarry. This is an improvement."
The women agree that Hamas is not actively working to close women off from society and opportunities. They also agree that the siege is what is breaking down Gaza from the inside out. Says Jihad Rostom, a translator: "Life in Gaza for women is all a bit harder than it should be, not only because of the internal Fatah-Hamas conflict, but because of everything, the siege, the war."
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