DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Women in Palestinian society are ashamed to discuss their problems with the male elders in charge of mediation committees. However, today, things have become easier for women, as the first female mediators have pushed forward social reform and now defend women's rights in tribal councils headed by men. Gazans go to these councils to settle their family problems and avoid going to court, where the resolution process is much longer and complicated.

Over the past couple of years, female mediators have increasingly emerged in the Gaza Strip. Some inherited the profession from their fathers and grandfathers, while others possessed innate wisdom and statesmanship. After training, they joined Gaza's mediation committees, where citizens often take their issues instead of to the judiciary or police. Female mediators are often asked to intervene to solve problems within a family, such as settling a dispute between a husband and his wife.

Maitre Abdul Moneim al-Tahrawi, president of a project to train Gaza's mediators at the Palestinian Center for Democracy and Conflict Resolution, told Al-Monitor, “The center held legal training sessions. The mediators intervene in a friendly manner on many issues regarding women — such as matters related to residency, inheritance and economic or physical violence practiced against women in Gaza — and try to settle it before referring [these issues] to the law.”

Tahrawi said, “We have formed a social committee for the mediators at the center, to which women can resort to for various problems. The mediators resort to the center’s [female] lawyers to present the women’s issues before the courts, for a minimal cost and sometimes free of charge, since most women are unable to raise such issues on their own.”