Women ponder future under Hamas

[barb162]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4767634.stm
Last Updated: Friday, 3 March 2006, 08:14 G

Women ponder future under Hamas

By Alan Johnston
BBC News, Gaza

Among those on the Hamas benches in the new Palestinian parliament sits Mariam Farhat - also known as the "Mother of Martyrs".

Hers is a story of death and sacrifice that the militant group's faithful regard as a grim inspiration.

Her son Muhammad died during an attack on one of the settlements that the Israelis built after they occupied Gaza.

snip

But of course there are significant numbers of women who have watched the party's rise with concern.
snip

[pelsar]

1. my question....

hamas is a fanatical religious group that not only denys basic civil rights to women but wants to implement shari law.....in which they may go the way or Iran.

so why arent the posters here "up in arms" with this development. I would think that in a liberal environment people would be agasht as such potential: moral squads, hanging gays, killing couples who hold hands (gaza a few months ago)....

so whats worse the PA, israeli occupation (for arguments sake, pre intifada I)...or iranians style facist theocratic dictatorship?

[idontwantaname]

2. i agree with you pelsar.

if only things would settle down for a minute and the house demos ect(you know the list) would stop. if the wall would fall and hostile settlers be shipped to the moon than maybe the occupation wouldnt be such a bad thing. if israelis started hiring palestinians again and then we could all be friends...

of course one answer perhaps for both sides is no gods, no war.

[pelsar]

3. that i agree with...

get rid of the gods...

actually the hamas thing makes me nervous...not so much as an israeli for israelis, but for palestenians......if they go the way of Iran....nothing good will come will come out of it for them...in fact i would guess it would make the secular palestenains really miserable.

(btw in terms of your question as to the arrests....i have no knowledge of whats going on....)

[idontwantaname]

4. i once attended a coworkers wedding

a man from india and a woman from the US. one of the womans vowes is she will not go anywhere without her husabnds permission. yikes!

[pelsar]

10. worse...

i went to a "newly religious jewish girls wedding" (wifes long "lost cousin")...she was just 18.......i could barely stay more than a few minutes.....words fail me at this point....(not so much for the religious rituals, but for her innocence into the world that she was entering....)

[barb162]

5. The article highlight the deeply illiberal nature of Hamas

and fundamentalist Islam. "...the liberties of a woman are always subject to the consent of a male relative."

It's frightening. It's too bad things won't stay secular.

[idontwantaname]

6. too bad things won't stay secular

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060306/ap_on_re_us/abortion_south_dakota_9;_ylt=Au_mL9vg3EfDqLRGk._aiaCB_YEA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

S.D. Governor Signs Abortion Ban Into Law

The bill would make it a crime for doctors to perform an abortion unless the procedure was necessary to save the woman's life. It would make no exception for cases of rape or incest.

[Wordie]

8. How do you do that barb...do you have blinders that only

allow you to see those portions of the article that confirm your ideas of things? Open up your mind and see that's not at all what this article was saying.

"This doesn't mean that we will depart from Islamic law. People think that Islamic law is about being veiled, and closed and staying at home - but that's wrong. A woman can go out veiled and do all kinds of work without any problem." (emphasis mine)

Islamic heritage

And what does Hamas make of the lifestyles of more secular women - those who might like to go unveiled and spend an evening talking to friends of the opposite sex in cafes?

..."These young people don't know about their Arab and Islamic civilisation," Ms Shanti says.

..."We will bring back Islamic thought and heritage through the media and through education. These people will come to understand their culture. But we will not seize their freedoms from them." (emphasis mine)

If an Israeli was to talk about bringing back Jewish thought and heritage, would that concern you too?

I'd say there are reasons for concern about the Palestinian society becoming increasingly theocratic, but the jury appears to be still out at this time, and you only presented one side of the story.

[Wordie]

7. The article is more balanced than that, barb.

Just after the beginning of the article, which you quoted, it goes on to say, "But if you really want to know what the rise of Hamas and its formation of the new government might mean for Palestinian women"...and then goes on to quote a woman by the name of Jamila al-Shanti."

She is the political visionary in the party's female ranks, and she was the third placed candidate on its national electoral list.

Ms Shanti talks of Hamas using the proper interpretation of Islam to push back boundaries for women, and draw them more into employment and social activity of all kinds.

"There are traditions here that say that a woman should take a secondary role - that she should be at the back," she says.

"But that is not Islam. Hamas will scrap many of these traditions. You will find women going out and participating," she explains.

[Wordie]

9. Here's another article from the Boston Globe, which again presents 2 sides

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/01/21/islamist_women_redraw_palestinian_debate_on_rights/?page=2