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.
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