Palestinian women in Gaza will need a man's permission to travel
Rights — di Luigi Mastrodonato
Palestinian women will only be able to travel with the permission of a male relative, a judge close to Hamas has ruled. But the rule could be revised.
Palestinian women in Gaza will need a man's permission to travel
Palestinian women will only be able to travel with the permission of a male relative, a judge close to Hamas has ruled. But the rule could be revised.
Freedom of movement for Palestinian women living in the Gaza Strip will henceforth be subject to male authorisation. This has been established by a ruling of the Islamic court. The judge, who is close to the Hamas movement, identified the father, husband or son as the guardian to whom local female citizens must turn, while for men a non-binding warning was issued against travelling if doing so were to cause harm to the family. Civil society and human rights movements have raised their voices and taken to the streets against the ruling, which could soon be amended.
It’s bad enough that Israeli and Egyptian policies have trapped Palestinians in Gaza for far too many years. Now Gaza’s Supreme Judicial Council is imposing rules to allow male guardians to restrict unmarried women from leaving the territory @hrw hrw.org/news/2021/02/1…
A new barrier to movement
Until now, leaving the Gaza Strip was already in itself a very complicated undertaking, not only for Palestinian women. Since the Hamas movement took power in the territory in 2007, the movement of people has been severely restricted by the measures put in place by Israel to isolate the Islamist militias. To the south, things are no better, since the Rafah border crossing with Egypt is almost always closed. The result is that two million people find themselves effectively held hostage in a territory roughly twice the size of the municipality of Milan, in what is known as the world's largest open-air prison.
This does not mean, however, that travelling is an impossible feat for a Palestinian from Gaza. A lengthy process of authorisations and interviews can end with a positive outcome, and at that point, with some luck and long hours of checks at the border, it becomes possible to reach Israeli or Egyptian territory. A highly complex mechanism, which from now on will be even more restrictive for women. Hassan al Jojo, a judge on the Sharia Legal Council who is close to Hamas, has established in a ruling that the Gaza Strip is governed by the rule that was once characteristic of Saudi Arabia and subsequently abolished in 2019, whereby women's international mobility is subject to the permission of a male guardian from within the family. The authorisation must be registered with a court, after which the woman will be permitted to travel alone, subject to the proviso that male accompaniment is advisable. At the same time, men in Gaza are advised not to travel if doing so may disrupt family stability.
Heading for a U-turn?
The ruling has caused considerable discontent in Gaza. The judge justified himself by saying that it respects the dictates of Sharia, Islamic law, and that it does not discriminate since it also addresses men (albeit in a non-binding manner). The stated aim is to avoid what he described as "frequent" situations of girls fleeing their families or husbands abandoning wives and children. But both Palestinian women and men have taken to the streets, reaching the local parliament building to make their voices heard against the institutions.
On 22 May, legislative elections are due to be held in Gaza, and for human rights associations the ruling on women's travel permits is a way in which Hamas is courting the more conservative electorate at a time when its popularity is in sharp decline. The risk, however, is that the judge's initiative, which is strongly political in nature, could backfire in a territory where women make up half the population and where awareness of rights issues is beginning to grow. This is why, following the fierce protests of citizens and opposition groups, judge Hassan al Jojo declared in recent hours that the ruling should be revised, in what would be an important victory for civil society.