On 26 March 2012, the Institute for Women's Studies (IWS) in collaboration with the Institute of Law (IoL) at BZU held its fourth annual conference entitled: "Getting Right Women’s Rights: Re-thinking Gender and Law in Colonial Palestine." The conference was attended by academics and researchers from the United States, Tunisia, Egypt and 1948 Palestine, in addition to local intellectuals.

In his opening address, BZU President, Dr. Khalil Hindi, expressed his pride at IWS’ outstanding performance in terms of “its activities and creativity in raising issues that impact society’s abilities to counter challenges and obstacles."

Team Leader of Good Governance and Consultant at United Nations Development Programme / Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People (UNDP/PAPP), Dr. Abla Amaawi, overviewed UNDP/PAPP programs and projects that have contributed to the empowerment of Palestinian women. IWS Director, Dr. Islah Jad, stressed that the conference highlights the application of women’s rights in the framework of international conventions. 

 

The conference included three panels, the first of which, chaired by Ms. Reem Botmeh from the IoL, was titled:  "Law, Gender and Violence: Palestinian Women, Israeli Law." Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Lisa Hajjar, presented the first paper, in which she talked about the Israeli military court system.

 

 In her paper “Casting Out:  “Citizenship, Legal Surveillance and the Eviction of Palestinians,” Dr. Nadera Shalhoub - Kevorkian examined the gendering and racialization of Palestinians through the workings of disciplinary power in colonial Israel. She argued that the racial and gendered formation reflected in the representational practices of the new laws recuperated older racial technologies of exclusion, criminalization and visibility. Dr. Shalhoub - Kevorkian is a feminist-activist, an associate Professor at the Faculty of Law - Institute of Criminology and School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University, and the Director of the Gender Studies Program at Mada al-Carmal, Haifa. 

 

The plenary session “Re-thinking Gender Rights: The Law, Liberal Subjects and Colonial Violence” was chaired by Dr. Jad. Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Saba Mahmoud, presented a paper titled: "Secularism, Gender and Family Law: The Making of Sectarian Conflict.”

In the second panel, Botmeh presented a paper titled: “The Palestinian Authority and Law and the Post-Oslo Project of Instituting a Legal System: A Gender Legal Review.” She argued that the current approaches to the conceptualization of Palestinian law and the legal system limit the role of that system and do not respond to the colonial context that the legal system is operating within.

IoL Director, Dr. Ghassan Faramand, presented a paper titled: “The Palestinian Christians in the West Bank: Legal and Judicial Pluralism in Family Law.” He stated that: “The Palestinian system of protecting Christians’ culture and religion had its foundation many years before the establishment of the Palestinian Authority.” This system of religious pluralism is ensured by the Palestinian basic law for 2001, he added.

The closing plenary was chaired by Dr. Hajjar and was devoted to discussions as well as conference proceedings and recommendations.

Over the past three years, the IWS annual conference has proven to be an exciting venue for critical debate and exchange amongst students, academics, government representatives, NGOs and activists on the topics of gender and gender justice.

On the sidelines of the conference, the IWS organized a roundtable discussion entitled, "Women’s Rights and the Law: Lessons from the Arab Spring – The Cases of Egypt and Tunis." Dr. Hala Kamal from the Women in Memory Forum in Cairo addressed the rights of Egyptian women and the revolution. The President of the Foundation for the Future in Amman, Nabila Hamza, talked about the process of actively negotiating women’s rights in the Tunisian revolution.