A Woman in the Palestinian Cabinet

[P F Tinmore]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWGyRd7Q92s]YouTube - People and Politics | A Woman in the Palestinian Cabinet[/ame]

 

[Baruch Menachem]

As usual, the damn Jews beat you to it.

 

[Marc39]

As usual, the damn Jews beat you to it.

Except, Israel doesn't have fascist sharia law that forbids women from laughing in public, as in Hamastan...
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVWk8qjsU8]YouTube - Hamas Imposing Sharia Law In Gaza[/ame]

 

[P F Tinmore]

RAMALLAH, West Bank – At 35, Leila Ghanem is the first woman to become a Palestinian governor, the latest in a group of trailblazing women leaders who are slowly winning acceptance in this traditional society.

Ghanem, a former intelligence agent, joins a cluster of women in senior positions in the West Bank district of Ramallah, a political and economic hub known for its relatively liberal social attitudes, where she was appointed governor earlier this year. The mayor of the district's main city is a woman, as are four ministers in the Palestinian Cabinet, two Islamic court judges and the head of a Palestinian financial oversight agency.

t's a place where Palestinian women are clustered in senior positions. Janet Mikhail, a 65-year-old retired school principal, was elected Ramallah city mayor in 2005. Last year, Khuloud Faqih, 35, was one of two women judges appointed in the West Bank's Islamic courts.

Another woman, Abir Awdeh, heads the Palestine Capital Market Authority, which regulates the non-banking financial sector, such as insurance companies and mortgage lenders. Four women serve in Fayyad's 22-member Cabinet, the highest number in any government since the Palestinian Authority was established in the 1990s.

In Gaza, one woman, Jamila Shanti, occupies a senior position in Hamas' decision-making body. They also have 6 female legislators and there are several women in senior municipal posts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100311...c3QEc2xrA3dvbWVuaW5jaGFyZw--#mwpphu-container

 

[Marc39]

Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza Women: Who is Defending Their Rights?

It is not easy to be a woman living under a fundamentalist Islamic regime like the one in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, women in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been facing a campaign of intimidation and terror that has forced many of them to sit at home and do nothing. The fact that women are oppressed under radical Islamic regimes is of course very disturbing. But what is even more disturbing is the silence over abuse of women's rights in the Gaza Strip.
Has anyone heard prominent Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi come out in public against Hamas's repressive measures against Palestinian women? Where are local and international human rights organizations, especially those that claim to defend rights of women in the Arab and Islamic world? Has any major media outlet in the West thought of making a documentary about the suffering of women under Hamas?

Or are they so obsessed with everything that Israel does [or does not do] that they prefer to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the Gaza Strip? Has anyone dared to ask Hamas why sending women to carry out suicide bombings is all right, while it is not ok for them to walk alone on the beach or be seen in public with a man? Have "pro-Palestinian" groups in North America and Europe ever thought of endorsing the case of these women by raising awareness to their plight?

Since Hamas seized full control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian women have been deprived of many of basic rights, such as strolling along the beach alone or smoking in public. Under Hamas, female lawyers are not allowed to appear in court unless they are wearing the hijab. They are also barred from going to male hairdressers. A woman who is seen in public with a man is often stopped by Hamas policemen and questioned about the nature of the relationship between them.

Women in the Gaza Strip who have dared to participate in public political and social events have been repeatedly harassed by the Hamas government. As a result, many of them have been forced to stay at home out of fear for their lives. Even Palestinian women's groups in the West Bank do not seem to care much about the conditions of women under Hamas. Have any of them thought of organizing demonstrations or campaigns in protest against abuse of women's rights under Hamas?

The West, Islam and Sharia: Gaza's Women: Who Is Defending Their Rights?

 

[Freeman]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

 

[P F Tinmore]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

The woman in the first video was originally in the unity (Hamas) government. She is one of two ministers who have been approved by the PLC in the new Abbas government. The rest of Abbas' ministers are in office illegally.

 

[Marc39]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

The woman in the first video was originally in the unity (Hamas) government. She is one of two ministers who have been approved by the PLC in the new Abbas government. The rest of Abbas' ministers are in office illegally.

Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam 9/3/09 ...
Member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front, Kayed Al-Ghoul:

Hamas in Gaza today maintains a type of tyranny... and seeks, through undemocratic means of coercion and despotism, to enact laws that enforce their ideology and their party's world-view on the entire Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip...

Hamas enforces [wearing of] the headscarf and long gown (hijab and jalabiya) on female lawyers and students; it acts to separate the sexes in government departments by imposing a separation between the sexes in offices and waiting rooms, and it has prohibited mixed folk dancing.

Most dangerous, it has established Morality Units, run jointly by the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which ask couples who walk on the beach to present a marriage contract, and ask any woman walking alone on the beach to have an escort [male relative], and prohibit laughing and talking for women [in public], and have issued a religious ruling (fatwa) prohibiting men from swimming in shorts, with the rest of their bodies naked.

 

[Marc39]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

They were murdered.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Gaza Women: Who is Defending Their Rights?

It is not easy to be a woman living under a fundamentalist Islamic regime like the one in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, women in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have been facing a campaign of intimidation and terror that has forced many of them to sit at home and do nothing. The fact that women are oppressed under radical Islamic regimes is of course very disturbing. But what is even more disturbing is the silence over abuse of women's rights in the Gaza Strip.
Has anyone heard prominent Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi come out in public against Hamas's repressive measures against Palestinian women? Where are local and international human rights organizations, especially those that claim to defend rights of women in the Arab and Islamic world? Has any major media outlet in the West thought of making a documentary about the suffering of women under Hamas?

Or are they so obsessed with everything that Israel does [or does not do] that they prefer to turn a blind eye to what is happening in the Gaza Strip? Has anyone dared to ask Hamas why sending women to carry out suicide bombings is all right, while it is not ok for them to walk alone on the beach or be seen in public with a man? Have "pro-Palestinian" groups in North America and Europe ever thought of endorsing the case of these women by raising awareness to their plight?

Since Hamas seized full control over the Gaza Strip in 2007, Palestinian women have been deprived of many of basic rights, such as strolling along the beach alone or smoking in public. Under Hamas, female lawyers are not allowed to appear in court unless they are wearing the hijab. They are also barred from going to male hairdressers. A woman who is seen in public with a man is often stopped by Hamas policemen and questioned about the nature of the relationship between them.

Women in the Gaza Strip who have dared to participate in public political and social events have been repeatedly harassed by the Hamas government. As a result, many of them have been forced to stay at home out of fear for their lives. Even Palestinian women's groups in the West Bank do not seem to care much about the conditions of women under Hamas. Have any of them thought of organizing demonstrations or campaigns in protest against abuse of women's rights under Hamas?

The West, Islam and Sharia: Gaza's Women: Who Is Defending Their Rights?

 

[Freeman]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

The woman in the first video was originally in the unity (Hamas) government. She is one of two ministers who have been approved by the PLC in the new Abbas government. The rest of Abbas' ministers are in office illegally.

Hamas has formed a govt in 2006 with christian minister (Tourism) and a woman (family and woman issues).

 

[High_Gravity]

Well they better not laugh in public or go dancing.

 

[Marc39]

There were also some women in Hamas former govt.

The woman in the first video was originally in the unity (Hamas) government. She is one of two ministers who have been approved by the PLC in the new Abbas government. The rest of Abbas' ministers are in office illegally.

Hamas has formed a govt in 2006 with christian minister (Tourism) and a woman (family and woman issues).

Khaled Abu Toameh: What About Hamas's Siege Of Gaza?

As Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla ship convoy that was on its way to the Gaza Strip, Hamas security officers stormed the offices of five non-governmental organizations, confiscated equipment and documents, and ordered them closed indefinitely. Ever since it seized control over the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007, Hamas has imposed a reign of terror on the local population in general and its critics in particular. Hamas has brought nothing to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip other than death and disaster.

The raid on the NGOs in the Gaza Strip, which received little coverage in the media, is seen by many Palestinians as part of Hamas's ongoing crackdown on political opponents and human rights organizations. Further, Hamas's recent decision to ban municipal elections in the Gaza Strip is yet another violation of one of the basic rights of its constituents. Hundreds of Palestinians have been arrested by Hamas's security forces for daring to speak out against the state of tyranny and intimidation in the Gaza Strip. Over the past three years, dozens of Fatah officials and members have either been thrown into prison or killed. Under Hamas, the Gaza Strip is being transformed into a fundamentalist Islamic entity resembling the regimes of the Ayatollahs in Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

While there is no ignoring the fact that Hamas originally came to power in a free and democratic election in January 2006, this does not give the movement the right to impose a social, intellectual, political and economic blockade on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Instead of searching for ways to improve the living conditions of the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip, Hamas is busy enforcing strict Islamic rules on the population, such as Hamas policemen, for example, often stopping men and women who are seen together in public to inquire about the nature of their relationship. Since the kidnapping of IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in 2006, more than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed, many of them during Operation Cast Lead which followed the firing of rockets at Israel. The kidnapping of Schalit and the rocket attacks have made the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip pay a very heavy price. If Hamas were really serious about ending the blockade on the Gaza Strip and helping the poor people living there, it would have accepted at least shown some pragmatism in dealing with the outside world.

Hamas could have, for instance, accepted the international community's demand to renounce terrorism and honor all previous agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israel. Moreover, it could have allowed representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit Schalit. Hamas, however, is more interested in clinging to power than in serving its people; and in light of increased calls for lifting the blockade following the flotilla incident at sea, the movement's leaders in Syria and the Gaza Strip are now convinced that they are marching in the right direction.

The flotilla incident came at a time when Hamas appeared to be losing its popularity among Palestinians, largely due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Gaza Strip. It also came at a time when even some of Hamas's supporters were beginning to criticize the movement, especially over its decision to demolish scores of "illegal" houses in the southern Gaza Strip and the execution of criminals and "collaborators" with Israel. It is one thing to help the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, but it is another thing to help Hamas. Those who wish to deliver aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip can always find better and safer ways to do so - either through Israel or Egypt. But those who only seek confrontation with Israel in the sea are only emboldening Hamas and helping it tighten its grip on the people of Gaza Strip.

Internation Musing: Istanbul, Amsterdam, Delhi, Portland, Utrecht, The Hague and Thessaloniki.: What About Hamas's Siege of Gaza? (by Khaled Abu Toameh)