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How Women Leaders Negotiate Gaza's Political Reality

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How Women Leaders Negotiate Gaza's Political Reality Report Women and power How women leaders negotiate Gaza’s political reality Nicola Jones and Bassam Abu-Hamad with Georgia Plank February 2016 Overseas Development Institute 203 Blackfriars Road London SE1 8NJ Tel. +44 (0) 20 7922 0300 Fax. +44 (0) 20 7922 0399 E-mail: [email protected] www.odi.org www.odi.org/facebook www.odi.org/twitter Readers are encouraged to reproduce material from ODI Reports for their own publications, as long as they are not being sold commercially. As copyright holder, ODI requests due acknowledgement and a copy of the publication. For online use, we ask readers to link to the original resource on the ODI website. The views presented in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of ODI. © Overseas Development Institute 2XXX. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (CC BY-NC 4.0). ISSN: 2052-7209 Cover photo: James Oatway / Panos About the Research This case study is an output from the Women’s Voice Project activities and outputs include: and Leadership in Decision-Making [hyperlink] project. This two-year (2014-2016) evidence and learning • A global review of the evidence on women’s voice project, funded by the UK Department for International and leadership, with thematic chapters on women’s Development, asks: (i) What enables women’s substantive political participation, social activism and economic voice and influence in decision-making processes? (ii) empowerment, Does women’s presence and influence in decision-making • A rapid review on women and girls’ leadership improve outcomes for other women and advance gender programmes, equality? (iii) How can international actors better support • A rapid review on women and girls’ use of digital women’s leadership and decision-making? In answering information and communication technologies, these questions, the research has examined the relationship • Five empirical case studies on women’s leadership and between women’s political, social and economic power and decision-making power, in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, resources, both individual and collective. Gaza, Kenya and Malawi, • A synthesis report and policy briefings. More information can be found at: odi.org/women-and-power Women and power 3 Acknowledgements We wish to thank Mariz Tadros and Tam O’Neil for ideas so generously to us. In addition, we would like to their insightful peer review comments. Indeed, the thank Roo Griffiths and Claire Bracegirdle for editorial authors received excellent and very useful feedback. Most and production support. Responsibility for all errors or importantly, the authors are very grateful to research omissions rests with the authors. participants who gave their valuable time and insightful 4 ODI Report Acronyms CFTA Culture and Free Thought Association CSO Civil Society Organisation CWLRC Centre for Women’s Legal Research and Consultancy DCAF Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces DFID Department for International Development EU European Union FGD Focus Group Discussion GBV Gender-based Violence GIZ German Society for International Cooperation HRW Human Rights Watch ICG International Crisis Group IDI In-depth Interview ILO International Labour Organization KII Key Informant Interview MDG Millennium Development Goal NRC Norwegian Refugee Council ODI Overseas Development Institute OPTs Occupied Palestinian Territories PA Palestinian Authority PCBS Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics PCHR Palestinian Centre for Human Rights PLC Palestinian Legislative Council PLO Palestinian Liberation Organisation SCPPR Saudi Committee for the Palestinian People Relief’s SDC Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation Sida Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency UK United Kingdom UN United Nations UNDP UN Development Programme UNIFEM UN Development Fund for Women UN OCHA UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs UNRWA UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East US United States USAID US Agency for International Development WAC Women’s Affairs Centre WCLAC Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling Women and power 5 Contents About the Research 3 Acknowledgements 4 Acronyms 5 Executive summary 8 1. Introduction 10 2. Context and political economy conditions 12 2.1 Key structural and institutional features 12 2.2 Women’s evolving access to rights and resources7 14 2.3 Key organisations/actors contributing to agency and power of women and girls 16 2.4 The aid environment and the role of international actors in women’s empowerment 17 3. Understanding women leaders’ efforts to maintain voice and influence in a fragile political context 19 3.1 What has been achieved? 19 3.2 What has enabled women’s leadership and voice? 20 3.3 What factors hindered women’s voice and influence? 22 3.4 What role do international actors play in supporting women’s voice and leadership in the Gazan context? 26 4. Conclusions 27 5. Recommendations 29 5.1 Recommendations for gender advocates and frontline women’s organisations 29 5.2 Recommendations for international donors 29 References 31 Annex 1: List of interviewees 33 Annex 2: Indicators highlighting women and men’s differential economic and political sphere participation and representation in Gaza 34 6 ODI Report Annex 3: Overview of political parties in Palestine 35 Boxes Box 1: Voice, leadership and decision-making power 11 Box 2: Women’s quota in Palestinian legislative bodies 15 Box 3: Resistance as a life-long mission 21 Box 4: A female trailblazer within Hamas 21 Box 5: Best practice addressing divisions in the women’s movement 24 Figures Figure 1: Voice, leadership and decision-making power 14 Women and power 7 Executive summary Case study focus and research questions: This case study emerged as essential to women’s exercise of voice and focuses on Gazan women’s experience of exercising leadership in the Gazan context. These include access voice and leadership in a complex, rapidly evolving, to higher education; supportive male family members; conflict-affected context. Historically, Palestinian women economic security that enabled women to participate in have enjoyed comparatively high levels of education and politics while also balancing family responsibilities; and been relatively active in social and political movements, exceptional personal courage in defying dominant gender especially in the context of broader nationalist struggles norms. Increasing access in recent years to the internet and against the Israeli occupation. However, since 2007, the social media has also helped women overcome their sense occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) have become of social isolation and forge linkages with other Palestinian politically divided between the West Bank, governed by women and internationally. the Fatah-controlled secular Palestinian Authority (PA), Women’s personal and collective capabilities have and the Gaza Strip governed by the socially conservative emerged in the context of broader social and institutional Islamist Hamas government. Accordingly, this case study changes in Palestinian society and polity. Palestinian seeks to explore how and how much opportunities for women have a high level of literacy and higher education women’s voice and leadership have shifted in Gaza compared with other conflict-affected and low-income during this period, and the role of international actors in countries. The Palestinian resistance against the Israeli supporting women leaders within this tumultuous context. occupation has constituted a powerful source of We are particularly interested in exploring the strategies motivation for women of diverse political affiliations, and women employ in a conservative patriarchal context engagement in broader nationalist struggles and student exacerbated by a general narrowing of the political space activism have often served as a political apprenticeship of to maintain opportunities for voice and influence. sorts. And for women involved in party politics, the gender This case study is part of a broader multi-country quota introduced in the mid-2000s, which ensures greater research project on women’s voice and leadership in inclusion of women on party lists, has helped increase developing country contexts, which is exploring two key women’s representation in formal politics at national and questions: (i) What are the enabling factors for women and local levels, albeit not in party decision-making positions. girls’ voice, leadership and access to decision-making? (ii) Key constraints respondents identified as hampering Do – and if so how – women and girls’ voice, leadership women’s effective exercise of voice and leadership were and presence in decision-making roles result in greater limited support by male political party colleagues; a gender equality? highly fragmented women’s movement; limited, time- Methodology: In order to explore these questions, the bound and highly politicised donor funding; and a case study combined a literature review of published and narrowing of the political space, even before the start grey literature sources with primary qualitative research. of the Hamas administration of the Gaza Strip in 2007. A senior researcher undertook 17 interviews with women For many respondents, the ‘NGO-isation’ of civil society leaders in the Gaza Strip broadly defined – including following the 1991 Oslo Accords and the exit of many women from parties across the political spectrum, senior women from movement roles to become PA employees civil servants and
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