Glad you brought that up. Although women make up 50% of the population in Gaza, their influence in most fields is limited, and their basic rights are often systematically denied. While women have achieved some limited accomplishments since Hamas came to power, gender discrimination has intensified overall.
However, although Hamas has touted women's inclusion in the political movement, female representation has been consistently dismal over the past decade. The 2007 unity government with Fatah included only one female minister out of 25, Hamas member Amal Syam, who served as Minister of Women's Affairs. Seven years later in 2014, the next attempt at a unity government again included only one woman, Haifa al-Agha, in that same position.
Women's political participation is concentrated at the bottom. Only 3.8% of women working in legislation in Gaza occupy management level positions.
Women face widespread discrimination in the economic and social sectors, with limited employment opportunities and virtually no pathways to financial independence. Women's participation in the Gaza labor force is among the lowest in the world at about 22%, (global average of 50%).Only 7% of employed women in Gaza are employers, while 81% are wage employees. Of those women who are unemployed, 59% is due to housekeeping and just 28% is due to studying or training (compared to 59% of unemployed men).
Of particular concern is the abuse - physical, sexual, and verbal - that a large portion of women in Gaza endures. Significantly, there is no law in Gaza that prohibits violence against women within the family, sexual violence included. When women do manage to submit an official complaint, they routinely find that their complaints are not given adequate attention and are often ignored completely. The police intentionally refrain from publishing the number of complaints they receive each year, in an overt effort to discourage women from pursuing legal recourse and encourage them to solve matters within the family.
In the absence of necessary laws and law enforcement mechanisms, violence against women continues at alarming rates. 16.7% of surveyed girls aged 12-17 reported undergoing physical or psychological violence at the hands of teachers or classmates. 51% of married women in Gaza have admitted to being victims of some form of violence from their husbands, be it physical, sexual, psychological, economic, or social. Perhaps as troubling as the violence itself is the prevailing norm of silence regarding this issue, as evidenced by the fact that less than 1% of abused married women chose to report it to the appropriate authorities.
A form of gender-based violence that has received significant publicity is honor killing, the murder of women and girls accused of immoral sexual conduct. Honor killings are tacitly allowed by the Hamas government, if not explicitly condoned. According to Article 18 of Penal Code no. 74 of 1936, reduced punishments may be given when the accused committed the act in order to prevent "irreparable damage to their honor." In cases where men are tried on charges of honor killing, they will often claim that it was self-defense, including protecting their honor, and be sentenced to three years of prison or less.
In addition to the forms of gender-based oppression mentioned above, Hamas also enforces a "code of modesty" that severely restricts the basic freedoms of expression and movement. A normative dress code that Hamas has attempted to enshrine in law, mandates that women must wear a hijab, the Islamic head covering, while in schools, courthouses, or beaches. Women in Gaza have reported being approached by modesty police, who aim to enforce the dress code by intimidation. The modesty code also includes a prohibition on riding motorcycles, smoking in public, learning to drive without the presence of a man, using a male hairdresser, and even submitting complaints of incest.