Development of Hamas’ Position on Women’s Roles and Issues (1987 – 2017)

ABSTRACT:This research deals with the development of Hamas’ position on the role of women and their issues, and seeks to answer the following questions: What is Hamas‘ position on the role of women in the political field? What is Hamas’ position on women’s issues in the Personal Status Law and the Penal Law? Has Hamas planned to impose a certain mode of behavior on women in their general and private affairs? The researcher used the Historical Research Approach. This research consists of an introduction and four sections. The first section focuses on Hamas’ position on the role of women in the first Palestinian Intifada, the second on Hamas’ position on women’s participation in the armed struggle, the third on Hamas’ position on women’s issues in the Personal Status and Penal Laws, and the fourth on the development of Hamas’ position on women’s political participation. The study concluded with a set of results, which can be summed up as: Hamas did not impose theoretical restrictions on the participation of women, but it hesitated in practical aspects, especially in military actions. Its position on women’s political participation remained affected by public climates. In this field, it benefited from the Elections Law, which obliged all lists to allocate a quota for women. In general, the positions of Hamas ranged from positive practices such as allowing women to participate as ministers or lawmakers in the parliament and to participate in military operations to negative practices such as imposing headscarves at schools, preventing women from riding motorcycles and smoking hookah in public places. It seems, however, that the negative measures were not part of a systematic policy, and they were all canceled later by Hamas.
KEYWORDS : Arab World, Hamas, Islam, Palestine, Women