Strategies in the model parliament46

In the main document prepared as a resource text for the parliament, ‘The Law and the Future of Palestinian Women’, attorney Asma Khader combined specific recommendations for amendments to existing shari'a law with a general recom­mendation for a unified family law to be applied in civil courts with a jurisdiction over the whole population.

Within the various regional groups of the parliament, contesting approaches to shari'a quickly emerged. WJiere religious or socially conservative participants were generally not resistant to the principle of equality in other areas governed by civil authorities - with the important exception of provisions in criminal law governing penalties for adultery - the consensus was more difficult to reach when dealing with 5⅛ff⅛-g0verned personal status law. As noted in Chapter 8, several different approaches emerged to the question of reform of existing personal status law. A number of women activists consistently advocated applying the principles of gender equality in the Palestinian Declaration of Independence and United Nations resolutions and pushed for a civil family law applied in civil courts. They additionally invoked the PLO’s signing of the 1979 CEDAW⁷ as a Iegaljustification for this position (Othman 1998: 67). Others saw shari'a as already based on principles of Islamicjustice and equality, and sought its true application. A third position essentially compromised between the two, by advocating reform within shari’a and affirming that Islamic law is responsive to change that reflects the needs of contemporary women and society.