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The 1994 Women's Charter

The women’s movement focused its activity at the beginning of the transitional period on an initiative for a Women’s Charter, inspired by the South African model. Based on the equality provisions of the Palestinian Declaration of In­dependence and on other United Nations instruments, the Charter attributed existing ‘discrimination and inequality against women’ to the many colonialisms imposed on Palestine, ending with the Israeli occupation, reinforced by prejudicial ‘customs and traditions’.

While the Charter went into some detail in regard to rights to political partici­pation and particularly nationality, personal status issues were at the most general level, demanding ‘the guarantee of women’s full equality regarding issues of personal status’. In a message sent to the conference releasing the document in Jerusalem in August 1994, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat endorsed the charter but added ‘as long as there is no contradiction with shari'a'. As we will see below, this was to remain his position throughout the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in the transitional phase.

In the period following the Charter, personal status issues became central to a cumulative number of gender and law initiatives undertaken by the women’s movement. The history of these initiatives shows both the strengths and problems of the equality approach which has dominated the strategic thinking of the Palestinian women’s movement and suggests additional directions and strategies to explore when approaching the reform of j⅛n⅛-based family law in the Pales­tinian context.

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Source: Welchman Lynn. Women's Rights and Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform. Zed Books,2004. — 328 p.. 2004
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