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June 13, 2018 8:12 am
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UN: ‘Great Return March’ Increased Abuse of Women in Gaza

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avatar by Elder of Ziyon

Opinion

Palestinians prepare to fly a kite loaded with flammable material near the Israel-Gaza border, June 4, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa.

The United Nations Population Fund has written a report about the dangers to Gaza’s women as a result of the “Great Return March.”

The report proves that Palestinian society is pretty sick — and it identifies four groups of Gazan women that were negatively impacted by the riots. For example:

Mothers with injured children reported increased gender-based violence, especially psychological/emotional violence as mothers were often blamed by their husbands and other family members for “allowing” their children to participate.

So Gazan women can be beaten for allowing their children to go to a march, or pretty much anything else.

 Women whose husbands have been killed or injured during the demonstrations are expected to meet the financial needs of the family, which is difficult in a situation with a high unemployment rate. Moreover, widows and wives who were subjected to forced child marriage often do not have proper education, which makes the job search even more difficult. 

Oh, by the way, a significant number of Palestinian women are child brides.

Widowed women are in higher risk of immediate psychological/emotional and economic violence by family members, as some are expected to remarry, potentially with a brother of the former husband. Additionally, the family of the late husband will often take control over the finances. 83.7 percent of the males killed are between the age of 18-39, which means that many of the women left behind are around the age of thirty, and, therefore, still perceived by society to be able to remarry, thereby risking the custody of their children.

And by the way, many Palestinian women are treated like they have no rights whatsoever. They cannot decide what is best for their families — even after the death of their husbands.

Girl children who lost a father or who are expected to have a father with disability are in increased risk of forced child marriage due to reduced income as the father/husband is usually the breadwinner of the family. Marrying off daughters is perceived as a protection mechanism to ensure the livelihood of girl children. In reality, it turns out to be a negative coping mechanism.

And it is not only adult Palestinian women who are treated like garbage, but girls as well.

The report pretty much says that as much as the lives of women in Gaza already were terrible, the riots have made their lives even worse.

But who is actually talking about how bad their lives are to begin with? No — that is a taboo topic, because if Israel cannot be blamed, then the media and world is simply not interested.

Elder of Ziyon has been blogging about Israel and the Arab world for a really long time now. He also controls the world, but deep down you already knew that.

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