The United Nations organization for women’s rights, UN Women, is “seriously concerned” by the rising rates of violence against women, including “honor” killings, in the West Bank and Gaza the Palestinian Ma’an News Agency reported.
A UN statement highlighted the Palestinian Authority’s recent endorsement of the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women”.
“The Palestinian Government has demonstrated a political will to end violence against women through the adoption of a zero-tolerance policy on violence against women,” the statement read. However, the UN urged that this “political will must be translated into urgent concrete action.”
A 2012 survey by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported that 37 percent of Palestinian women were subject to some form of violence at the hands of their husbands, with the highest rate in Gaza at 58.1 percent and the lowest in Ramallah, at 14.1 percent.
Furthermore, according to statistics released in 2012 by the Palestinian Independent Commission for Human Rights, 13 women were murdered by honor killings in 2011 and 12 in the first seven months of 2012.
As these numbers continue to increase, UN Women has called for the urgent implementation of the “Serious Case Review” mechanism. This mechanism, coordinated by the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, unites governmental and civil society institutional partners to conduct a thorough investigation into the most recent cases of violence. The goal is to identify the appropriate response in terms of ensuring protection for Palestinian women and ending impunity for the perpetrators of violence against them.
While some experts claim that the increase in violence was indicative of a slowing economy, others pointed out that women themselves are the ones who are unemployed and this makes their plight even worse. Palestinian female participation in the labor force stands at 17 percent, a figure the World Bank called “abysmally low,” noting that employers appeared to favor men, among whom joblessness was almost a third lower in 2013.
Palestinian media occasionally reports the discoveries of women’s bodies in what are called “hazy circumstances” – a euphemism for honor killings. Names are concealed and the news is rarely followed up.
Honor killings are not a new phenomenon among the Palestinian population. A 2013 study estimated an average of 15 to 20 honor killings occur every year in Jordan, a country whose total population is approximately 6.3 million, compared to almost the same number happening in the West Bank and Gaza whose total population is only approximately 3 million.
Dr. Yunis Al-Astal, a member of the Council of Palestinian Clerics and a Hamas MP,recently criticized the punishment of honor killings in Palestinian Arab society.
In his statement, Astal argued that honor killings is a more serious crime than the reason behind the honor killings itself. The dictated punishment for premarital sex by Sharia Law – which is the most common reason for the murders, according to Astal – is only one hundred lashes, not execution.
Astal also clarified that according to Sharia Law while adultery is punishable by stoning, the sentence needs to be handed down by the court, not by family members. He slammed the fact that, often, honor killings are carried out in secret – with only close family members knowing her fate.
