Glass ceiling broken – two women elected to the Hamas leadership
Graduation ceremony for Hamas policewomen in Gaza City, 17 December 2012
Adnan Abu Amer reports in Middle East Monitor:
The results of the recent elections within Hamas in the Gaza Strip are significant because, for the first time since it was founded in 1987, two women have joined the movement’s political bureau. This development has captured the attention of the Palestinian, Arab and international community, as it dispels the stereotype promoted by Israeli propaganda that Hamas is a dark religious movement that excludes women and does not give them the status they deserve.
Hamas itself announced that Jamila Al-Shanti and Fatima Shurrab will be members of the political bureau until 2025. Al-Shanti, 66, is a leader of the women’s movement and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. The Israeli occupation state placed her on its assassination list after she and other women were successful in breaking its siege of Umm Al-Nasr Mosque in Beit Hanoun in 2006. A number of the women were killed and wounded by the Israel “Defence” Forces during the incident.
Shurrab is the leader of the women’s section in Hamas, and has a prominent position among its female members. She is involved in popular and Hamas activities. “The movement’s election process allows women to be elected, and to hold senior positions in decision making,” said Hamas. “It guarantees their rights in joint or separate work.”
This sheds light on the position of women in Hamas’s political thought and behaviour. Since its inception, the movement has understood the role that women play as fundamental pillars of society most definitely not subordinate to men. It formed the Women’s Action Department in the late 1980s as one of its organisational committees like any other, with a budget and public activities.