Palestinian women call for equal opportunity

By Rashid Hilal A women's rights march was held in the West Bank town of Ramallah on January 3. Several women candidates in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, including independent Hanan Ashrawi and Fatah's Jerusalem list candidate Zahira Kamal, participated. The demonstrators called for equal opportunity for women and men in the Legislative Council with slogans like "No democracy without treating women equally". Birzeit University lecturer Islah Jad, a member of the Women's Issues Team, said the figure of 22 women candidates — only 3% of the 700 total candidates — was not logical when women are half the population. The demonstration, permitted by the Palestinian police, ended in a festival at which more than 11 candidates gave speeches. Participants agreed that women played an essential role during the intifada and that they will be the backbone of the future Palestinian state. Hassan Abu Libdeh, head of the Palestinian Centre for Census and Statistics and a member of the Election Centre Commission, said that women voters outnumbered men in Jerusalem, Ramallah and Tulkarm.
[Abridged from the Jerusalem Times.]

From GLW issue 216