Palestine Women for Marriage

Really? Are women just birthing machines or servants available like slaves only they call it a marriage? Slavery for a life sentence? I do not wish to be disrespectful to a land or culture that has been around for hundreds of years but it is time to realize that women seek love, companionship and ultimately respect. In some cultures women expect equal pay for equal work and opportunities to be other things than just someone’s wife like a possession. In Palestine women for marriage is like a possession   to be bought or sold. It can be a business opportunity. Is there ever a thought for Palestine men for marriage?

Palestine is one of the most religious areas on earth. Christians base the stories in their Bible in this region. It is a place with a wealth of tradition and special customs which also includes the territories of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank that is still a hot bed of controversy and war. Forced marriages of teenage girls is well known although the law says not to marry a child under 17 years old. Could a love of one’s life ever be considered at this age? Girls in their teens have not yet experienced much of their lives at all no less to decide on a man to be with for the rest of your long life. Yet about one in ten Palestinian girls’ ages fifteen to nineteen is married.

It is a society that favors marriage and children. The decades old tradition is where daughters are not to marry outside the family for fear that the family’s property and real estate will be transferred to others. Many Palestinian families strip their daughters of their inheritance rights if they marry outside of the family. There is a high probability that they will have a child with a disability if they marry a family member. The disabilities are the product of decades of inter family marriages. The biggest injustice in Palestine tradition is that a man can marry from outside the family but a woman is not entitled to marry a man from outside the family or she will be stripped of all her inheritance rights. That is quite a double standard.

A woman can object to tradition and take her family marriage objections to the court that might allow her to marry outside the family provided that her choice is rich enough to support her and her inheritance value. She will still be not blessed by her family and be considered an outcast of sorts. According to Omar Nawfal, the head of the Sharia Court of Appeals, that Islam prohibits customs that deny women their inheritance rights. Nawfal said that if women do not pursue their rights in the courts they might lose their inheritance rights. Yet a woman does not wish to be discredited and looked down upon by her own family.

Going to court to claim a woman’s legal rights is the last thing on her mind since she would much rather have good relations with her family and friends. Marriage can be difficult for Palestinian women.