HEBRON, West Bank – “By Participating, We Can!” that slogan has made a group of women in Hebron who are challenging male dominance the talk of their famously conservative Palestinian city.

Hebron, the West Bank’s largest city with 250,000 Palestinian residents, will go to the polls to choose city officials for the first time since 1976 on Oct. 20. And it will be the first time that one of the candidate lists on the ballot is made up entirely of women – teachers, civil-servants, business women and volunteers.   

The road taken by these women has not, however, been easy.

They have faced tremendous opposition from the local community, including comments directly to the women such as “you are wasting your time.”  

But Maysoun Qawasmi, leader of the bloc, and a 43-year-old mother of three sons and two daughters, remains undaunted.

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Challenging the status quo
Qawasmi explained that the women initially faced legal objections to forming an all-female political bloc.

“I researched everything I could about election laws until I found out that there was no law against an all-female party competing,” Qawasmi said. 

She said some members of her own family initially resisted her challenging the status quo given the importance of tribal values woven throughout the fabric of society here.

For example, she explained that a local belief states, “No matter where a woman reaches, her brain remains small.”

But Qawasmi, who wears a headscarf and describes herself as secular, has not lived by those words. She is a journalist and human rights activist. Politics are new to her, but she does not believe that her secularism puts her at any kind of political disadvantage.

“I go down and talk to people. I always tell my kids that social skills are more important than intellectual skills,” she said.

As a member of a prominent family clan in Hebron, her family name has been advantageous.

“We have a good CV and this is beneficial. But I am also up against five other candidates from the Qawasmi family. Besides, almost three quarters of my family clan support Hamas, so that’s at least 20,000 votes gone,” she said. (However, the Islamic group Hamas say they are boycotting this election). 

The idea of forming an all-female bloc stemmed from five years of work empowering women. For her and those around her, she had already crossed customary boundaries by becoming the manager of the Palestinian Wafa News Agency in Hebron.

The bloc had initially recruited 50 potential qualified candidates – but that number whittled down to 11.

“Many high-caliber women had to pull out for various reasons,” she said. “We had a highly qualified woman with a Ph.D. who had to pull out when a brother chose to run for elections in the same family; the male is given priority over the woman.”

Generally, running as a bloc increases the chances of getting more votes leading to a higher number of seats in the municipality. Qawasmi believes that her bloc is likely to gain support from young men and women.

‘Women should represent society, but not to this extent’
Not everyone however, agrees with her vision.

Wadie, a 35-year-old chef from Hebron, offered his opinion on the matter.

“Our religion does not give a woman the right to enter the Shura Council (Consultative Council). It dignifies her to be in her house,” said Wadie, only chose to share his first name.

“I personally don’t believe she will get votes except from the Qawasmi family. If Qawasmi succeeds she will be fought against, she is not liked because she encourages freedom.”

He added a religious argument to his opposition. “Eighty percent of Hebron is religious…I have to stick to the book of God. Women should represent society, but not to this extent.”

Wadie’s opinion may represent a high percentage of the men in Hebron, but there are others who are looking at more than gender with their vote. 

“It’s not a man or woman thing, people judge according to who works harder. If the rest of the bloc was as strong as [Qawasmi] they would have a chance at winning,” said Issa Amr, a 33-year-old male resident of Hebron.

Hoping other women will follow
For now, Qawasmi is satisfied that the bloc has been officially registered.

“I want to do what I can do. I want to do what must be done by decision makers and prioritize real issues that have not been addressed by the municipality,” she said. “I hope this will enhance the role of women in the political sphere at the larger level. I do expect women in other locations to follow.”   

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HEBRON, West Bank -- A new group running for municipal elections in Hebron is offering residents an alternative to politics as usual in the conservative West Bank city: Women at the helm, instead of men.

The all-female list, which is called "By Participating, We Can," is gearing up for next month's vote with a campaign that aims both to win at the polls and to convince voters that women can lead just as well as men.

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"Men here traditionally want their women to stay at home, and when they allow them to go out to work, they send them to do traditional jobs like teaching," said Maysoun Qawasmi, the 43-year-old group leader, who entered the race this week.

"But we want them to go further, to work like men in all possible jobs they can," she said.

The group is fielding 11 previously independent candidates for the Oct. 20 vote. Should the bloc succeed in garnering significant public support, the women hope ultimately to unite and form an official political party.

But the women are well aware of the challenges they face in conservative Palestinian society, and the chances of an all-woman ticket performing well at the polls -- for now at least -- appear slim.

Trying to attract other women voters
Qawasmi said the candidates are campaigning door-to-door to attract what they see as their natural electorate -- fellow women.

If elected, Qawasmi promises to open women-only facilities, like a sports club -- an idea that has faced opposition by religiously conservative Muslims in Hebron who believe it is immodest for women to play sports.

She predicts her group could nab three out of the Hebron council's 15 seats, and she has ambitious hopes that after the vote, when the council chooses the mayor, she will be selected for the post.

A journalist for the Palestinian news agency Wafa, Qawasmi also holds training sessions to empower Palestinian women in the West Bank. She wears a hijab, or headscarf, but also dons pants and a blouse, and describes herself as secular.

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At a recent meeting at Qawasmi's Hebron home, the group's members took turns sharing their personal stories of success.

Liyana Abu Asheh, 28, said she worked as a civil engineer, stunning locals by helping pave the streets, and now runs her own private business. Asma Deis, 38 and recently widowed, said she's opening a small cleaning materials factory on her own to support her five children.

"Women can make the impossible possible," Deis said.

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Politically active
While Qawasmi's bloc is unique in its composition, women have long been politically active in Palestinian politics, and some hold office in the government run by the Palestinian Authority. There are six female ministers in the 24-member Cabinet of Western-backed Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. In the 132-member Palestinian legislative council, there are 17 female lawmakers.

But other indicators show that women in Palestinian society have largely retained traditional roles. Only 16 percent of women in the West Bank are employed, and in Hebron the number drops to 10 percent. If the women's bloc were to win seats, it would likely challenge taboos in Hebron and beyond.

These elections are the first in the city of 200,000 since 1976. Local polls held elsewhere in 2005 were cancelled in Hebron, and current mayor Zoher Esaili was installed by Fatah in a bid to prevent its rival Hamas, an Islamist group which has broad support in the city, from winning the post.

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Hamas and Fatah had a violent falling out in 2007, and now separately govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip, respectively.

Qawasmi's group is up against a Fatah list and independents. Hamas is likely to sit out the vote pending reconciliation with Fatah, which could slightly increase Qawasmi's chances.

Skepticism
Highlighting the challenge the party faces before the vote, even female Hebron residents were skeptical of the all-woman group.

"It's a daring step. I'm proud of them, but to be practical I will vote for another party headed by a man," said Rawya Sarsour, a first-year university student.

Construction worker Ali Nathshe was blunt about his opposition: "They will fail."

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Even if the group does not make it into the council, Qawasmi believes her campaign will still emerge victorious by showing that women can indeed lead just as well as men.

"We will open the door for women in Hebron to struggle for their rights," Qawasmi said.

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Israeli police evicted Jewish settlers Wednesday from a building they said they had bought from a Palestinian in the heart of the West Bank city of Hebron, a frequent flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The presence of the 15 settlers in the two-story structure had caused divisions within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mainly right-wing cabinet, where Defense Minister Ehud Barak, leader of a centrist party, has pushed for eviction.

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Netanyahu had asked Barak to give the settlers more time so they could present legal evidence of their claim to ownership of the building, which has been disputed by Palestinian authorities. But defense officials said they had entered without the approval of Israeli security authorities in a particularly sensitive area in the occupied West Bank.

A statement issued by Barak's office hours before the eviction said the government had a duty to "uphold the rule of law."

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police and paramilitary border police carried out the eviction in accordance with a government decision.

Rosenfeld said security forces met no resistance during the operation.

The settlers had sought to expand a settlement of some 500 Israelis in the heart of Hebron, a biblical city that is home to about 250,000 Palestinians and where enmity between the two groups runs high.

Burial site of Abraham
The biblical city is home to the traditional burial site of Abraham, the shared patriarch of both Jews and Muslims, and the only place where Jews live in the heart of a West Bank city. It has been a focus of Israeli-Arab violence for decades.

Though politically strong, Netanyahu has faced questions within his Likud party and other right-wing coalition partners about his commitment to the settlers, many of whom see themselves as exercising a Jewish birthright to biblical land.

In an announcement issued just minutes before the settlers were removed from the building, Netanyahu said he would soon ask the government to grant formal status to three West Bank settler outposts built more than a decade ago without state permission.

Netanyahu's move to approve those outposts retroactively raised speculation he was trying to mollify settler leaders angered by the Hebron eviction.

About 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas which, along with the Gaza Strip, were captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

Most world powers deem the Jewish settlements illegal and Palestinians fear their presence will deny them a viable state. Israel disputes this and has vowed to keep major settlement blocs under any eventual peace accord with the Palestinians.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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