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Palestinian Women Set Back By Conservative Society

Recent moves against women's rights in Gaza show a retraction of the once revered role of Palestinian women in the resistance, Daoud Kuttab writes.
A Palestinian protester holds stones as she stands near broken glass during clashes with Israeli soldiers outside Israel's Ofer military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah February 25, 2013. The death of Palestinian Arafat Jaradat on Saturday in an Israeli jail and a hunger strike by four other Palestinian inmates have raised tension in the occupied territory after repeated clashes between stone-throwers and Israeli soldiers in recent days. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL

The image will remain engraved in many people’s memory about the first intifada. A Palestinian woman dressed in a skirt and blouse holds here high heel shoes in one hand and throws a stone on members of the occupying Israeli forces with the other. Clearly the image is not so much about violence as it is about defiance and the integral role of women in the Palestinian uprising.

Match that image with this week’s decision by the Islamic-led powers in Gaza to ban a marathon in the Strip because women had decided to participate in it or the decision last month to apply strict Islamic dress code on female university students. This comparison, while focusing on external descriptions, is perhaps the most telling image of the retraction, rather than the progression, of Palestinian women in the last four decades.

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