Hamas Police Force Recruits Women in Gaza
By TAGHREED EL-KHODARY The New York Times Published: January 18, 2008 GAZA CITY - The policemen of Hamas now have company: since the Islamic group took over here last June it has been recruiting policewomen as well. Since mid-August, 60 women have been accepted into the force. Unlike policemen, the women have not played any role in resisting the latest Israeli incursions, instead working mostly on gender-sensitive cases of drugs and prostitution and helping out at police headquarters and the central jail. Restoring internal security to the lawless Gaza Strip was one of the main challenges for Hamas once it took over the area after a civil war with Fatah. The policewomen are one way Hamas has tried to fill the security gap. Faced with diplomatic and internal isolation, Hamas has also struggled to recreate a criminal justice system, in part because the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, is paying salaries to the old judges, prosecutors and police officers, mostly from Fatah, and telling them to stay at home. Hamas has named only four judges so far, not enough to resume the work of civil courts. It is a paradox of Islamist societies that their deeply conservative restrictions on women and the mingling of the sexes necessarily create opportunities for women in certain areas, like sports, criminal justice and medicine. But in Gaza, female empowerment and Hamas-style religious orthodoxy are not always an easy mix. Many religious women refuse to do police work because it involves working closely with men and working nights. There are other uncertainties. For example, Rania, 26, the leader of the women's force, refused to give her full name during an interview. She felt that her future in the police was not yet assured, and that she might one day need to go back to her former career as a religious instructor in the mosques. If so, her interlude as a policewoman might spoil her relations with her students, she said. Like most of her female colleagues, Rania wears the niqab, a full veil that leaves only a slit for the eyes. A sign of modesty, it affords her a degree of anonymity as well. One recruit, Fatma, 27, wears only a head scarf, which leaves her face exposed. But she complained that it was hard to run in her long Islamic robe, known as a jilbab. She said that her bosses were thinking of designing a new uniform for easier movement. "They are talking about pants, and a jilbab that is open on both sides," she said. Though Gaza is generally conservative, growing economic hardship intensified by the isolation of the strip under Hamas rule has pushed more women to leave the house for the working world. Since Hamas began recruiting women for the police through its television and radio stations, and calling on women in the mosques to consider the job a religious duty, hundreds have applied. They are often highly qualified, with more than two-thirds having studied civil and criminal law at Al Azhar University, the only institution here that teaches law. But nothing in school can quite prepare a young woman for a drug raid, said Fatma, who studied law at Al Azhar. "The first time it was scary," Fatma said. "We hadn't received any special training. But the second time was better." When raiding the house of a suspected dealer, Fatma said, four policewomen are typically assigned to join 30 men. The policewomen search female suspects who may be hiding drugs on their bodies, and go into areas off-limits for Hamas policemen, like family bedrooms. Another recruit, Fida Abu Husain, 28, is single and lives with her family in the Jabaliya refugee camp, north of Gaza City. "I used to tell my family that my dream was to join Qassam," she said, referring to the Hamas military wing. "I'm not Qassam, but I'm in the police force. It's considered jihad," a holy mission, she said. Ms. Husain works for Amin Nofal, general manager of the military court system. Mr. Nofal cannot see much of her behind her full veil, but says he identifies her by her voice and manner. "Some women cover their beauty, and others hide their ugliness," he said, referring to the niqab. "It's fair. There are those who feel comfortable wearing it when dealing with men." Rania had been working on the case of an unmarried female university student who had been photographed having sex. It was unclear whether she was engaged in prostitution, which is a crime. Either way, she had put herself in a compromising position that, in Rania's view, could harm the Palestinian cause. Drugs and prostitution lead to "collaboration with Israel," she said. Rania took the pictures to the woman's family and told them of their daughter's "wrongdoing." Rania acknowledged that in cases of "family honor," the women often end up dead at the hands of male relatives or are sometimes married off to those they slept with or were raped by. "Women are the victims," said Zainab Ghonaimi, a women's rights advocate in Gaza. With Gaza's court system still barely functioning, justice has become mostly a family affair. As a result, Gaza's central jail serves in part as a kind of shelter for women at risk. Recent inmates included a 15-year-old girl whose family said she had been raped by her 22-year-old cousin. Four female relatives were in the jail with her, endangered by accusations that they had failed to promptly inform the head of the family of the rape and a subsequent pregnancy. The male cousin was free. The 15-year-old gave birth to a baby girl after the rape, but her brother "threw away" the newborn, according to the women, and nobody knew where the baby was. The teenager's father had agreed to marry her to the cousin, but the cousin's father was objecting. In a separate room, five women from a poor family in central Gaza were taking refuge. Accused by male cousins of prostitution, the five said their lives had been threatened. "We're protected here," one said.
