AP

Palestinian Maysoun Qawasmi, the 43-year-old party leader of By Participating, We Can, attends a meeting in the West Bank city of Hebron on Sept. 13, 2012.

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.

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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BETHLEHEM, WEST BANK – At the Aida Refugee Camp, a few blocks from Israel’s separation wall, is the Al Rowwad Cultural and Theater Center founded by Dr. Abdelfattah Abusrour in 1998 with the philosophy of “beautiful resistance” against the Israeli power over their land.

Saif Dahlah / AFP - Getty Images

Palestinian children hold posters of hunger striker Bilal Diab, who is in administrative detention in Israeli prison, during a demonstration in his support in the West Bank village of Kafr Rai near Jenin on Friday.

JENIN, West Bank – Im Hisham, 65, spends her days sitting in her home in Kufur Raei village near here waiting for news about her 27-year-old son, Bilal Diab.

“I haven’t seen my son since the day Israeli Special Forces raided our home in the middle of the night and arrested him in front of my eyes,” she said of the incident on Aug. 16, 2011. “They gave him administrative detention for six months and when the six months ended they extended his detention for six more without charges or trial.”

Palestinians resort to hunger strike in protest

Diab has since become one of the faces of a mass hunger strike by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 

On Friday, Diab and Thaer Halahleh, another prisoner, entered their 74th day without food. They are demanding that the Israeli courts either charge them or set them free. 

Attention to Diab and Halahleh’s protest escalated on April 17 when an estimated 1,600 inmates launched their own mass hunger strike in solidarity, a move that led to Palestinians taking to the streets in the West Bank and Gaza almost daily to rally in support of the prisoners’ protest.

Abbas Momani / AFP - Getty Images

Palestinian protesters hold portraits of their relatives held in Israeli jails during a demonstration to show solidarity with Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.

Fears for life
On Friday, a spokesperson for Physicians for Human Rights, a humanitarian organization in Israel, said he fears for Diab and Halahleh’s lives. 

Yael Marom complained that the last time the Israeli Prison Service allowed one of their doctors to visit Diab was on April 30.  “The Israeli Prison Service is still denying regular access to [Diab] and the other hunger strikers by independent physicians and do not update us or the families, which is a blatant breach of medical ethics," she said.

Israel says all prisoners receive adequate medical attention, including care civilian hospitals if required. "As of now, I know that those who should be receiving extra care are receiving it," a spokeswoman, Sivan Weizman, told Reuters. 

Mark Regev, the Israeli government’s spokesman, also claimed that Israel was providing adequate medical treatment for the prisoners and said they were free to choose their own doctors. 

"But ultimately, this is not about medical facilities," he said, "this is about hard-core activists, from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, who through this protest are trying to instigate violence."

Mass support among Palestinians
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned Israel that the death of one of the prisoners could result in chaos. 

“If anybody dies today or tomorrow or after a week it would be a disaster and no one could control the situation," Abbas said in an interview with Reuters at his office in Ramallah. "I told the Israelis and the Americans if they do not find a solution for this hunger strike immediately, they will be committing a crime."

Issa Qaraqe, the Palestinian Authority’s minister of prisoner affairs, has appealed to the international community, including the U.N. and even Pope Benedict, to intervene.

“Palestinian hunger strikers are fighting for what they have been systematically denied — their dignity, rights and justice,” he said. “I appeal to the world to immediately intervene and save the prisoners’ lives before it’s too late. If the hunger strike results in the death of one of the prisoners then Israel should expect an escalation of violence in the West Bank and even inside the Israeli prisons.”

On May 7, Israel’s Supreme Court rejected Diab and Halahleh’s appeal against imprisonment without charge or trial and ruled that they could not be released because they are a security risk. But the court added that the Israeli authorities should consider
releasing them on medical grounds.

Hoping for the best
Meanwhile, Diab’s mother is maintaining her vigil for her son. Since she has had no direct contact with him since his detention, the only way she can get updates on his health situation is through human rights organizations and media outlets.

“I am constantly listening to the news hoping to hear anything about my son,” she said. “I haven’t been allowed to see him for nine months now. Every time I close my eyes I can see him lying in a bed, looking pale, thin and weak, and I tell him to stay strong and that victory is near.

“I know that my son’s health is suffering as a cause of the hunger strike but I don’t dare think that something bad will happen to him. I just want to see my son, touch his face and tell him that everything will be ok. I will die if anything happens to him.”

Courtesy Emad Maho / Courtesy Emad Maho

Emad Maho, a Syrian activist who says he was captured and tortured by President Bashar Assad's forces, fled across the border to Jordan in November.

RAMTHA, Jordan – One year ago, Syrian engineering student Emad Maho's future plans revolved around finishing his university degree and then starting a family.

The Arab Spring changed that. The 23-year-old says he was tortured by Syrian authorities for protesting against President Bashar Assad's regime.

Maho is among the thousands of Syrians who have fled their homeland. According to the United Nations, at least 8,000 people have died in Syria over the past year due to the government's violent repression of the uprising.

Mohammad Hannon / AP

Syrians wave revolutionary flags and Jordanian flags as they gather at an anti-Bashar Assad protest in Amman, Jordan, on Thursday.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says more than 5,000 Syrian refugees have registered with them in Jordan. But the Jordan government says the number is much higher and that as many as 80,000 Syrians have crossed into the country since the revolution started.

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Speaking from the northern Jordanian town of Ramtha, which borders Syria, Maho told of his arrest, torture and humiliation at the hands of Syrian authorities.

'I always hated the regime'
Maho had never thought about becoming an activist -- but says he had "always yearned for freedom."

“I always hated the regime and wished I could have the minimal freedom other people in the world enjoy,” he said. “When I received an invitation on Facebook to participate in a demonstration in front of the Libyan Embassy in Syria to support the Arab Spring, I was very excited and I remember thinking: ‘When will the Syrian people demand their own freedom?’”

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After more than 40 years of oppression, Syrians were not immune to the revolutions sweeping the region. Syria has been ruled with an iron fist by the Assad family since the current president's father, Hafiz Assad, seized power in 1970. Last March, Syrians decided it was their turn to demand their freedom.

“From the start of the revolution till the 9th of July 2011, I participated in more than 150 demonstrations all over Syria,” Maho said. “I made flags, wrote banners and reached a point where I was organizing the demonstrations, capturing footage on my mobile [phone] and sending the videos to Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya TV channels,” he said. 

The Assad regime does not sanction protests – so those who have taken part in demonstrations have reportedly suffered the worst forms of torture, including electric shocks. Activists have also had their homes stormed and family members taken hostage. Many of their relatives have been tortured, killed or simply disappeared.

“I became wanted by the Syrian security forces," Maho recalled. "So I left my home and went into hiding for a few months. But my mistake was that I missed my mother terribly.

"I went home to see her; she prepared breakfast for me and then we argued because I was tense. I knew I was going to be arrested that day. I took a quick shower then walked 200 meters to my father’s shop to say hello and get some money.

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“My mother came running into the store to tell me she spotted six 'shabeeha' – armed men in civilian clothing who assault protesters – walking towards the store.”   

Maho said he immediately realized he would be arrested, but that his main fear was for his father.

'My mother was crying'
“I tried to attack them so that they will only arrest me and forget about my father. I threw my phone away because it had all the videos I shot in recent demonstrations. I managed to hit two of them, but I was outnumbered and was arrested. My father was arrested, too. My mother was crying behind,” Maho said.

Maho said he spent 20 days imprisoned at the General Headquarters of the Military Intelligence in Damascus’ Kafer Soussa neighborhood. He said he was physically tormented for at least six days – beaten, tortured with electric cables and deprived of sleep. He said he still has nightmares.

“I was forced to stand naked on a wall with my hands tied to the ceiling for seven hours. Every 30 minutes they would spill cold water on me and electrocute me. On the third day of my arrest, they realized I wasn’t saying anything, so they blindfolded me, put a stick in my mouth and escorted me to a room. I heard a man screaming. As soon as they took the blindfold off my eyes I saw the man was my father. He was yelling and I started crying. He was on the floor and three men were beating him. That was the worst moment,” he said.

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Finally, after days of torture Maho confessed what his captors wanted him to confess: That he was a spy for Al-Jazeera since he was filming the demonstrations and sending them to the TV network, as well as the fact that he was an activist and protest organizer. After his confession, he says they continued to torture him, but finally released him.

But even upon his release, Maho says he returned to the demonstrations.  He said his father was arrested for a second time, along with some cousins, in order to pressure him to turn himself to the Syrian authorities.

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“I knew that if I stayed in Syria, they would never leave my family in peace.  And I believed I could be of more help to my people alive, rather than dead. I went to Daraa [near the Jordanian border] and was smuggled into Ramtha, Jordan.”

For now, Maho says he does not want to return home. He wants to help Syrian families in Jordan.

But he said he would like to see Assad leave the country. “We will not judge him, history will.”  

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GAZA STRIP – In Hamas-ruled Gaza, where Islamic fundamentalism controls every aspect of daily life in the city that has been under an Israeli-imposed siege since June 2007, a group of eight young men from the Nuseirat refugee camp are breaking boundaries by break dancing.

The Camps Breakerz took their moves out onto the rundown streets of Gaza for the first time this month, even though members have been practicing together since 2005.

The dancers released a video on YouTube that shows them doing elaborate dance moves – from spinning head stands to arms stands and flips in “I heart Gaza” t-shirts all over Gaza. 

"When I danced in the street I felt free for the first time in my life. I challenged the conservative society and mainly I challenged the Israeli siege," said Mohammed al-Ghrize, otherwise known as “Funk,” who brought together the Camps Breakerz crew.

Over the past five years Hamas has imposed a strict code of conduct in Gaza, forcing residents to follow strict Islamic law.  The laws have restricted women from social activities like riding on the backs of motorbikes and smoking traditional shisha pipes in public spaces. They have even restricted men from working in women’s hair salons – believing that men cutting women’s hair is immodest.

In a new attempt by the fundamentalist militant Muslim group to crack down on behavior it sees as contrary to its conservative interpretation of Islam, Hamas banned Gaza youth from participating in the Palestinian version of "American Idol."  Their reasoning was because Muslims can only sing and dance to the sound of drums – not any modern instruments.

"Because I know it's very hard for our conservative society to accept our Westernized hobby, we introduced break dancing as a kind of sport," Ghrize explained. “We even managed to convince Hamas to regard break dancing as a sport by performing in their sports events and dancing only to the beats of the drums.”

The group understands that in a society struggling under the ongoing Israeli blockade, break dancing can be viewed as a waste of time and seen as lacking respect for the Gazan reality. The Nuseirat refugee camp where Ghrize lives is home to 66,000 refugees, even though it was initially built to accommodate 16,000 people. And conditions are grim: According to the U.N. 90 percent of the water there is “unfit for human consumption.”

So for the members of the group, dancing is a welcome distraction.  

"We regard our activities as another form of resistance against the occupation; all of our sketches are inspired by our people's tragedies, especially children. Break dancing for us is a way of expressing our freedom.”

Ghrize studied nursing and works at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza. “All members of our crew are very well-educated,” he said. 

At the end of video the crew recently released, the dancers names, nicknames, ages, job and special moves are listed. They range from “Chino,” a 22-year-old cook whose specialty is “style break beat,” to “Dark,” a 26-year-old teacher whose specialty is “combos,” to “Fox,” a 15-year-old student who likes “power moves.”

One of the many obstacles the Camps Breakerz faced was finding a place to train, especially after the Nuseirat refugee camp’s community center was destroyed by an Israeli raid during the war on Gaza in 2008.

"We have a dream," Ghrize said, "that one day we will have our own center where we can teach children to break dance and give them a stage to express their feelings."

The Camps Breakerz hope to go to the U.S., where break dancing originated, to meet other break dancers who will help them grow, excel and become an internationally recognized group. They want to eventually be able to compete internationally among the best break dancers in the world.

"I wish I lived in a free liberal country where I can practice the thing I love most without any political or fundamentalist boundaries."

Related link: Gaza youths find escape in free running