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Rights now: Why Palestinian women do not want to wait for liberation

Outraged that Palestinian men are getting away with murder, women of Palestine take to the streets and to cinema halls to push for their rights.

Women wave Palestinian flags during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza Strip June 21, 2019. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa - RC18913F8980
Women wave Palestinian flags during a protest at the Israel-Gaza border fence, in the southern Gaza Strip, June 21, 2019. — REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Women from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and from Beirut to Berlin chanted "No free homeland without free women," in a concerted effort to bring gender equality in Palestine to the forefront of social and political discourse rather than allow it to remain in the shadows of the national liberation.

“We're told [it is] national liberation first and [only then is it time for] women's emancipation,” Riya Al-Sanah, co-organizer of the demonstrations, told Al-Monitor, adding, “We do not accept this separation anymore. What kind of liberation are we talking about if it doesn’t include women?”

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