Palestinian Women's Point View of the Concept of the Civil State…The City Of Nablus, Palestine as a Model

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to uncover the Palestinian women's perception of the concept of the civil state and their expectations of the laws, constitutions and enactments, which will form the future Palestinian state, and their position within these enactments. In addition, it examines the respondents' definitions of the religious and civil states and their preferences to each one. The research uses a purposive random sample of (400) Palestinian women who are participants in the labor force. In addition to the questionnaire, focus interviews have been done with (13) Palestinian feminist movements key leaders, who represent the diversified Palestinian political and social groups. The reason for choosing the City of Nablus as a model is that because it has been encompassing many of the feminist movements and civil institutions for a long time, in addition to being the economic capital of Palestine, and thus, it has had diversified social and political activities. In short, it can be a good indicator of what goes on in the Palestinian society as a whole. The results demonstrate that study samples prefer laws and enactments that give priority for education for both genders, bane early marriage, and laws that give freedom, including financial one to women, and achieve full citizenship, and equality. The research shows that the legal obstacles in terms of the absence of laws that call for equality and other pillars of the civil society are confronting women advancement. The study also reveals that women are unaware of the political changes that have taken place after the Oslo Agreement and that may be attributed to being busy with their families, works and do not follow up the political developments and changes. Besides, it uncovers that the religious rhetoric still affects the Palestinian society, mainly during the political instability times.