Palestinian women face substantial obstacles in gender equality-- girls are often married at ages we would consider sexual abuse in the US, legally as young as 15. Polygamy is also still legal, though not common practice, in Palestine. It is a written in clause in a marriage contract, which a woman can consent to or refuse to allow. Domestic violence is still incredibly high, and the social pressures on women to behave appropriately, especially in a community as tight-knit as this, is huge. Family sizes also average 8-10 people, unemployment is as high as 38% in some parts of Palestine and 1 in 4 men in Nablus has been arrested by the Israelis at some point in his life.
I don't know about you, but to me, any woman who can raise a family in those conditions is anything but powerless. The amount of strength it must take to get up and go through daily life here-- especially as a woman under those conditions, responsible for 6-8 kids who all need food, clothes and an education, not to mention a place to run and have fun-- is unimaginable.
Societal pressure is extremely high here for women to veil, which I do see as problematic. A girl as young as 10, one with a love of the color pink and all the glitz and glitter and fashion she can find, walked into my classroom on the last day of class last week wearing a (pink and glittery) hijab for the first time, refusing to answer the question of whether she is veiling because she wants to or her parents want her to. Wearing a veil isn't a problem and it definitely doesn't take away your personality or make you voiceless, but being forced to wear one (or disallowed from wearing one in countries like France and Turkey) is a problem.Women here are witty and smart, not voiceless people hidden behind a veil. The fact that Americans view Middle Eastern women that way is, I think, a failure in our own brand of feminism.
Feminism runs so much deeper than choosing to or not to veil. Women at our center are working to improve themselves, through everything from health and fitness to general English to Business English and Entrepreneurship training. Some of these women run businesses and went to college. Others are largely illiterate. But they all show up every day, determined to better opportunities for themselves and their children. And I don't think there's anything much more feminist than that.
But there is not one way to dress like a feminist or talk like a feminist or act like a feminist, and these women prove that to me every day.
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I'm going to see the Palestinian hip hop group DAM, who raps about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, poverty and women's rights among other social issues, tomorrow. Check out their music here:
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