DYNAMIC WOMAN BREAKS BARRIERS IN WEST BANK HAMLET
BY DANA BUDEIRI, ASSOCIATED PRESS.
Observing tradition, Suheir Taha still asks her father-in-law for permission every time she leaves this Palestinian village of 200 people, nestled in a woods in the heart of the West Bank.
Even so, that doesn’t stop her from arguing with him in the village council. He is a member, but she is the chairwoman, the first female mayor in the West Bank.
Taha, 31, an elementary school principal, has made history in conservative Palestinian society, where public life is still dominated by men and many women are largely confined to the home or subservient jobs.
Despite tradition, six of the seven men on the village council voted for Taha to be mayor, and most women have shown their support.
She likes breaking ground for Palestinian women. “I am so proud, so happy,” she says. “It is a feeling hard to explain.”
Juggling three jobs–mayor, teacher, mother–leaves Taha little time for herself. “Fridays, although a holiday, are the worst, as I have to catch up on work accumulated during the week,” she says.
Her husband, Ahmed, 34, a taxi driver, is proud.
“My wife is worth 10 men,” he says, taking a break from laying pipes outside his home in anticipation of a United Nations-financed water project for the village. For now, villagers still fill buckets at a large water tank and carry them home on donkeys.
Khirbet Qeis also lacks electricity and telephone lines, but Taha hopes to change that soon. She also plans to open a vocational center for village women with donations from activist groups.
Since taking the mayor’s job two months ago, she has transformed the village’s main thoroughfare from a winding dirt road into a paved two-lane street.
Taha left Khirbet Qeis at age 6 and grew up in Jordan. She returned to the village in 1990, married Ahmed, a cousin, and started teaching science at the elementary school.
With a $150,000 grant from the Palestinian Authority, which governs the autonomous Palestinian zone, Taha transformed the local school. Today, there are three classrooms instead of one for the 32 students, including two of her four children, Khaled, 8, and Yassin, 6.
Villager Falah Fatah, 55, says the people of Khirbet Qeis backed Taha’s selection as mayor because of her achievements and because the choice made them feel progressive.
“She works in the interest of the town and has brought us facilities that we missed,” says Fatah, his hands gnarled from work in the olive groves.
While Taha enjoys the support of most villagers, some men don’t want to deal with her and pass on requests through her father-in-law.
Hanan el-Bakri, a Palestinian women’s rights activist, said Taha’s election was an exception and not a signal of changing attitudes.
“We have a long way to go and huge gaps to cross before woman reach decision-making positions,” she said.
Only five of the 88 legislators in the Palestinian parliament are women.
Taha engages in her new role with a mixture of assertiveness and deference. She wears a white scarf and long robe, in line with Islamic tradition, but she doesn’t shy from disagreeing with the men in the council meetings that are held once a week in her living room.
Her mother-in-law, Mazouza, 54, watches Taha’s younger children, 9-month-old Abed and 3-year-old Isra, while she teaches. The older woman also does the cooking, then carries the food on her head to Taha’s house up the street. The family usually eats on the floor, gathered around a large dish.
