Flott appell på kvinnedagen

We are gathered here today to celebrate the International Women’s Day. And I would like to start by expressing my deep gratitude for the invitation to be part of this special ceremony.

We, women have a strong will and determination to achieve our goals. We put our hearts and souls into our work; we believe we can make a difference.

We have an endless list of tasks: we have our jobs, and besides that we are daughters, sisters, wives, mothers and grandmothers. We have come a long way in the past 100 years; today there is a female Councilor in Germany, and last year we saw for the first time a female candidate for the presidency of the United States of America. This is a brick in the wall of achievements that women have worked hard to reach. Today, along with our partners both at work and at home, we hold this world up.

But the picture is still incomplete, as women’s status and conditions are not the same around the world. In many countries, women are still struggling for their basic rights. They encounter many different challenges. Wars, political conflicts and poverty are the main factors that contribute largely to the suffering of women.

I come from Palestine; there, we have wars, political conflicts, poverty combined with the Israeli occupation and siege hammering our lives everyday. Yet we do not break down, we continue to live, we try to overcome the obstacles that block our way.

In our culture, normally the man works and provides for the family, the women may work or stay at home. However, many Palestinian women must work and take care of the family at the same time, either because the husband has been killed, detained, became handicapped, or out of work due to the Israeli occupation and siege. There are more than 11 thousand Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails now. This number means 11 thousand families waiting for the father, husband, brother, or son to be freed. Meanwhile the females need to be the provider and care giver to the family. Working is a not a problem, we are used to hard work, finding work in a city with an unemployment rate of over 80%, again because of the occupation and siege, is very difficult.

Women have other major challenges in the Palestinian society such as their right to have an education. The authorities provide school education for free to all; nevertheless university education is very expensive. Families send both sons and daughters to school, but they are forced to choose who gets to go to university as they can’t afford to pay the fees for all the children. In their perspective, the sons will have a family to provide for in the future while the daughters will marry and become housewives; accordingly the parents decide to invest in the sons and the daughters stay at home.

I still remember my late grandmother telling my dad over and over not to waste his money on my university fees; but I was very fortunate that he didn’t listen to her in this matter because my life would have changed dramatically. I am what I am today because I had my fair share of education. There are many fathers like mine and they do send their daughters to university if they can afford it. Given the chance to study, women not only excel but also earn scholarships to pursuit higher education abroad; here, emerges another obstacle, as our community does not approve of allowing females to travel alone. This is slowly changing as recently very few people have started to allow their female relatives to travel for studying.

We do have the right to vote and be candidates in the elections of the Palestinian Legislative Council, moreover we are highly encouraged to go out and vote during the elections, but at the same time we are strongly discouraged from participating in the candidacy in general and if we do very few people vote for us, including women themselves. There are positions in the Council for females, but it undergoes a separate election system called QOUTA: where female candidates compete with each other not with male candidates. This ensures the participation of women in the decision making in our society.

Freedom of choice is an advantage we lack in Gaza. Women’s right to choose a life partner is a tabu in our community; women’s right to seek divorce is not an option; a divorced woman has a very difficult life with minimal chances to remarry and start over no matter how young she may be.

People in our society are greatly oppressed due to the occupation, siege and poverty. Unfortunately they take their anger and frustration out on women and children. Sadly, domestic violence against both women and children is considered an internal family matter.

The majority of the population is Muslims. In Islam, it is obligatory that women wear a Hijab, a head cover. Most of my relatives and friends put it on, but I do not wear it. In my closed community, this is a very hard choice; it is like swimming against the stream. People immediately judge you negatively and assume the worst of you just because you are not following the majority. I wish people would stop using religion to persecute other fellow people.

Civil rights and human rights organizations have been working hard on raising women’s awareness of their rights and trying to empower women in order to lead a better life. But as it is easier to control people with less knowledge and education, the work of these NGOs faces tremendous turbulences and opposition from various parties within the society. Change is never easy and it does not come over night. Recognizing these problems is the first step towards healing.

The seeds can be planted, but we need to remove the tanks of the occupation from crushing the freshly growing plants. The occupation and the siege are like cancer terminating any chance we have to improve and go ahead. Tomorrow March 9th 2010 marks 1000 days of the meaningless siege on Gaza Strip.

On the bright side we do have some female pedal stone characters that we highly appreciate and look up to like Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, a university teacher and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. She works along with others to pave the way tot he rule of law and civil society norms under which women’s status in our society would improve. Our Palestinian Basic Laws are like the rest of the Palestinians, imprisoned in the books and left to the dust on the shelves.

When I came to Norway, I had the opportunity to meet women from different cultures. I can’t help but admire how they hold on tightly to their traditions and still be open to receive and respect other cultures from around the world. There has not been a war here in over 50 years. This is not only wise but also very hard and requires great patience and endurance. This has given you the chance to develop your community, women side by side with men. I was watching the news on an Arabic channel the other day. And they were showing the results of a study indicating that in the European countries the Norwegian men come first in helping their wives at home. I think this shows the solid relationship based on compassion and cooperation between men and women here. The stability and security you have here are a positive advantage for women. They have a firm steady status in the society.

Today you take the chance to honor women and their active role in the daily life around the world. We too in Gaza celebrate this day but in a very modest way. We used to have it as a national holiday, but it was cancelled when Hamas took over. The NGOs still hold activities and fairs to celebrate it. They do their best to manifest the efforts and hard work women do in our society. Moreover they are calling now to dedicate this day to the female detainees in the Israeli prisons.

For me, this is the first time I celebrate it outside Gaza Strip, I am lucky to see how appreciated women are in other communities such as yours. I hope in the near future we will have better conditions in Gaza and women will have a chance to lead a better life.

Thank you.