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Palestinians voted in local elections this past weekend for time since 2006, and one-fifth of seats are going to women, thanks to a new quota system for municipal councils in the West Bank.
It’s a victory for some, but for others such as Maysoun Qawasmi it’s a defeat. Qawasmi headed an all-female party contesting Hebron’s city election. Her party of 11 local women got just a few hundred votes, not enough to get them even one seat on the council.
Instead, the “Independence and Development” party, a group backed by the West Bank’s ruling Fatah movement, won most of the council votes and women selected by the party will sit in the seats reserved for women.
“These women who will sit on the council will vote with their party,” Qawasmi says. “Not for women’s issues.”
Qawasmi says the quota system that brought women in to council seats across the West Bank this weekend doesn’t mean better representation for women. “The woman is still not allowed her voice,” she says.
Read more at Voice of America, published 23 October 2012.
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Palestinians voted in local elections this past weekend for time since 2006, and one-fifth of seats are going to women, thanks to a new quota system for municipal councils in the West Bank.
It’s a victory for some, but for others such as Maysoun Qawasmi it’s a defeat. Qawasmi headed an all-female party contesting Hebron’s city election. Her party of 11 local women got just a few hundred votes, not enough to get them even one seat on the council.
Instead, the “Independence and Development” party, a group backed by the West Bank’s ruling Fatah movement, won most of the council votes and women selected by the party will sit in the seats reserved for women.
“These women who will sit on the council will vote with their party,” Qawasmi says. “Not for women’s issues.”
Qawasmi says the quota system that brought women in to council seats across the West Bank this weekend doesn’t mean better representation for women. “The woman is still not allowed her voice,” she says.
Read more at Voice of America, published 23 October 2012.
News
Region
Issues