Gaza \/ Ola Hasaballah
\n\"They loved one another... they exchanged kisses as they exchanged roses and gifts... suddenly she is pregnant by him with no legitimate bond between them\"
\nThis story was actually put forward in one of the training sessions held by the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution for a group of mukhtars and men of reconciliation in Gaza, and the answer to it was not the traditional one of saying: \"Kill them both and let no mercy or pity for them take hold of you\", but was: the problem must be resolved by marrying them.
\nIt is a unified answer, and for the first time from men in whose minds tradition and custom have done what they have done. With this evidence Abdel Moneim Al-Tahrawi, director of the projects department at the Centre, answered us when we asked him about the usefulness of the training course the Centre holds for 25 mukhtars and men of reconciliation distributed around the areas of the Gaza Strip, amounting to 50 training hours.
\nHe added: \"The idea was born through the Centre's work over two years on the project for empowering abused women funded by the office of Norwegian Aid, through which we work on three strands, the psychological, the legal and the social. We found that, in order to be able to work successfully at the social level, it was necessary to enter the social fabric and to work within the customs and traditions prevailing in society in order to protect the woman from violence. And in order to be able to provide protection for women in this society, we had to find a body with community respect, and we have agreed to call them 'the mukhtars or the reconciliation committees'.\"
\nIt is worth noting that the Centre trained 27 pioneering women in various areas of the Gaza Strip, who intervene in the cases of abused women in which men cannot intervene.
\nHe went on: \"Our experience was successful with the pioneering women, and we produced the first socially active women's reconciliation committee. As a continuation of this successful experience came the idea of training the mukhtars professionally so that their intervention in resolving the cases of abused women becomes a professional intervention. Therefore we drew up a plan to qualify 25 mukhtars distributed across the Gaza Strip to intervene in managing the problems of violence present in Palestinian society, and to train them over 50 training hours on several strands: the mechanisms of intervention with abused women, alternative ways of resolving family disputes, and working within legal foundations to bring their work closer to the law.\"<\/p>\n
He added: \"The numbers of cases of violence against women in the Gaza Strip are continuously increasing, where 23,000 actually came to the Centre over the past two years in the Gaza Strip alone, and I would almost swear that the cases that were unable to reach us are many times those that did.\"
\nHe went on: \"This number is continuously increasing because of the psychological and economic pressure resulting from the man's inability to provide a shelter in which to exercise his legitimate right, or food, particularly after the war, which drives the man to practise sexual and family violence against the woman.\"
\nThese increasing numbers of cases of violence were in one way or another the reason for making us think of training the mukhtars and men of reconciliation, particularly after their good performance and their positive intervention in many cases of violence against women, in order to make their intervention professional and on a scientific basis, Al-Tahrawi said.
\nHe added: \"This group is considered a nucleus, meaning that in each governorate there are 5 mukhtars, each of whom will gather 15 others around him, and we hope to come out with a real outcome from 25 mukhtars who have a real readiness for professional intervention.\"
\n\"We would have preferred not to resort to such a step and to turn to the law and the judiciary in all the cases coming to us, but given the existence of an absent law, the mukhtars and the reconciliation committees have a very great role.\" he said, smiling.
\nHe noted that the method used with this group in persuasion is the method of case study and substitution, where many pivotal questions are raised such as: if this raped girl were your sister, what would you have done?! Or if you were the judge here, how would you rule?! And so on.
\nHe added: \"We put forward the case and then begin analysing it and refuting it by means of the law, correct customs and religion. But the most important difficulties we face are the cultural inheritance, since they are men first and second advanced in age.
\nOn the other hand, Nadia Abu Nahla, director of the Women's Affairs Technical Committee in the Gaza Strip, sees the need to dismantle the social structures that contribute in many cases to strengthening violence against women, since there is no substitute for the existence and the supremacy of the law.
\nShe added: \"The efforts of civil society organisations must be directed towards addressing and closing the legal gaps, and we must also find alternative mechanisms to the traditional mechanisms in dealing with cases of violence against women.\" She also sees the need to direct these efforts towards finding shelters for women and children victims of family violence, and that family counselling centres must also be established.
\nShe went on: \"The mukhtars are in origin male institutions, so they will in no way deal fairly with the cases of abused women, besides being unable to intervene effectively in cases of killing and inheritance. But I do not deny their positive role as an executive force in the cases of poor women, and also their role in political matters. But this role is in no way sufficient and does not in any way equal the important role of the law. Therefore there is no substitute for establishing fair courts and laws that make men and women equal in rights, and we have no need to entrench these community structures, for there is no substitute for the rule of law and the closing of its gaps.\"
\nIn the same context, the United Nations Development Fund for Women and a number of local non-governmental organisations and mental health experts reported an increase in incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault against women in Gaza since the beginning of 2009.
\nA survey by the United Nations Development Fund for Women covering the heads of 1,100 households in Gaza, carried out during the period between 28 February and 3 March, indicated that violence against women had grown more severe during the war that lasted 23 days and ended on 18 January.
\nAnd between a law that has long slumbered and community institutions in which habit often overcomes nature, the women of Gaza remain the weakest link and the first victim of all political or economic changes.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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