The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Palestinian-American brings #MeToo campaign to West Bank
A young Palestinian-American is the driving force behind a nascent #MeToo movement in this patriarchal corner of the world, selling T-shirts, hoodies and denim jackets with the slogan “Not Your Habibti (darling)” as a retort for catcalls and writing down women’s complaints from her perch in a West Bank square.
Yasmeen Mjalli wants to encourage Palestinian society to confront sexual harassment, a largely taboo subject.
“What I am doing is to start a conversation that people are really afraid to have,” said Mjalli as she put her merchandise on hangers in a clothing store.
The 21-year-old has faced backlash from conservatives and from some activists who say fighting Israel’s occupation is the priority for Palestinians.
Her parents, who grew up in a Palestinian farming town, immigrated to the United States and returned to the West Bank five years ago, weren’t pleased, either.
“To be able to have peace with them, I have to check my feminism at the door, which is very difficult because that’s really who I am,” said Mjalli, who moved to the West Bank last year after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a degree in art history.
Mjalli and other activists say that starting a conversation about sexual harassment doesn’t mean copying the #MeToo movement in the United States, where victims are speaking out in growing numbers.
Cultural differences require a different approach.
Women across the Arab world have made strides toward equality, outnumbering men in many universities and joining the work force in growing numbers. Yet they struggle to break free from the constraints of patriarchy.
Traditional Arab societies assign rigid gender roles, with men as guardians of their female relatives’ “honor” — effectively a ban on male-female friendships or sex outside marriage. Women violating those rules risk being ostracized or — in extreme cases — being killed by male relatives, who count on leniency from the courts.
Rules are looser among urban elites. But even in Ramallah — the most liberal West Bank town with many Western-educated Palestinians and foreigners — women watch their step.
Palestinian police receive few complaints about street harassment, said spokesman Loay Irzeqat. He believes some women fear unintended consequences, such as male relatives attacking accused harassers.
Women lack legal protection, despite improvements such as the establishment of a police sex crimes unit, said Amal Kreishe, founder of the Palestinian Working Woman Society for Development to which Mjalli donates some of her proceeds.
Reforms of the penal code have been held up by the collapse of Palestinian parliament as a result of a decadeold split between President Mahmoud Abbas’ West Bank autonomy government and the militant Hamas group in Gaza. Abbas has ignored appeals to change the code by decree in the meantime.
Across the Arab world, the prevalence of street harassment varies.
In Egypt, it remains widespread despite pushback from civil society and a 2014 law threatening up to five years in prison. Cairo has been described by some as the world’s most dangerous mega city for women.
In the Gulf Arab region, street harassment is relatively uncommon in smaller countries where religious and tribal codes restrict interactions between unmarried men and women.
In Saudi Arabia, it has become an issue of debate, as women prepare to drive for the first time this June, following the lifting of a government ban.