West Bank women look to divorce marital status from IDs

Although President Mahmoud Abbas approved the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Palestinian women still face discrimination concerning their marital status.
Palestinian women wait ahead of prayers on the third Friday of the holy month of Ramadan at the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City July 3, 2015. An Israeli police spokesperson said on Friday that some 150,000 people attended the prayers on the compound and Israel barred Palestinian men under 50 and women under 30 from entering Jerusalem from the West Bank without a permit. REUTERS/Ammar Awad - RTX1IWTP
Palestinian women wait ahead of prayers on the third Friday of the holy month of Ramadan at the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, July 3, 2015. - REUTERS/Ammar Awad
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Ahmad Melhem
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — While Palestinian journalist Nahed Abu Taima was looking to rent a home in the West Bank city of Ramallah, she had great difficulty as a divorced woman in finding a landlord willing to rent to her.

Abu Taima, 43, who works as the gender unit coordinator in the Media Development Center at Birzeit University, told Al-Monitor, "I experienced difficulty in finding a home to rent as a divorced woman. Landlords kept telling me, 'You're a woman, where are we supposed to find you to collect the rent?'”

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