Press Release
Ramallah, August 29, 2016 – The Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development (PWWSD) strongly denounces the actions of some electoral blocs concealing the names of female candidates for the October 8 local elections. The same blocs promising to uphold democratic principles, provide services, develop the community, and meet the needs of citizens.
PWWSD is baffled by these blocs hiding the real names of female candidates, and referring to them as the wife of X, daughter of Y, or sister of Z. Portraying them as belonging to the men whose names are mentioned, unlike the women themselves. As if these blocs are ashamed of having women in their electoral lists, as an inescapable burden enforced by the quota system. Or perhaps they only needed to nominate these women in order to win their positions in the local elections, based solely on the interest of the family, or political party in some locations.
PWWSD strongly condemns this strange and unacceptable behavior in our society, where women work together with men in the national struggle against military occupation, and work towards establishing a democratic Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The organization demands that these blocs stop using women as a commodity, and stop this morally bankrupt and misinformed practice under the guise of religion, culture, customs, or traditions. A practice that steers us towards extremism which only serves to break apart the fabric of our society and to undermine the principles of equality, which are deeply embedded in the Palestinian declaration of independence and Palestinian basic law. PWWSD also calls on all women and upholders of democracy not to vote for these lists, and asserts that women indeed hold leading positions in civilized societies reaching the very top of governments, while some in our society still debate whether women’s names should be mentioned in public.
This irresponsible behavior indicates how much we have fallen back and regressed. This unthinkable tampering with electoral lists reflects the catastrophic reality we are headed towards, asserting that we need political leadership to take a serious stance, along with human rights institutions, to confront this abnormal and bizarre behavior, which shows a form of shameless lawlessness when it comes to respecting women’s rights as indivisible human rights not up for interpretation.
This decline, which affects the very essence of equality, requires the Palestinian political system to immediately work on legislating a personal status law, penal code, and comprehensive anti-discrimination law based on constitutional principles embodying equality for women in private and public space. Any stalling in this task will only serve to reproduce a state of political and social backwardness and division, stuck between praising Palestinian women and their roles, and at the same time working to exclude them and to detract from the basic components of their humanity. This constitutes a fundamental contradiction with international agreements signed by the state of Palestine, namely the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
End of statement.