Wife battering and sexual abuse get attention in Gaza July 20, 2011 GAZA (Reuters) - Most safe-houses

in the Gaza Strip are meant to provide protect ion for armed militants on Israel's target list. Now Gaza is offering protected shelter to battered Palestinian women. Its lone women's safe-house, opened two months ago, has had eight clients, all g uarded by police from the Islamist Hamas movement that runs the enclave and enfo rces a conservative though not radical Muslim religious code. So-called 'honour killings' are rare but not unknown among religious Palestinian s of Gaza and the West Bank, and like every society it is not immune to wife-bea ting. "In 2010 there was no record of killing under the motive of family honour and th is is a positive development," said Huda Naeem, a Hamas lawmaker who backed the safe house as a way station for women at risk within their own families. But feminism in Gaza is a very fragile plant. Women in many Arab communities can be killed by zealous relatives on the slighte st suspicion of having relations with a strange man. And jurists in Gaza say the re is no clear clause in the Palestinian law setting out the penalty for such mu rders. Islam also prohibits adultery and some Islamic teachings call for the stoning to death of offenders. Sobheya Joma, a woman lawyer at the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICH R), said there was no way to know for sure if honour killings were really eradic ated. "The ICHR is worried because it has recently noticed that some deaths were liste d as unexplained or accidental," Joma told Reuters in her Gaza city office. "As long as there is no investigation into these cases and the real causes were not uncovered, you are still going to have doubts," she sai d. TABOOS For Palestinian women, talking openly about sexual abuse in the family is still taboo. But if it's accompanied by violence, some women can finally opt for the s helter of the safe house. Of the eight cases of abused women now under the roof of the compound, some were minors. Other women have visited briefly and discreetly, seeking professional a dvice and support. "The first case who came to us was a woman who had been subject to physical viol ence and was raped and then escaped from her home," said resident psychiatrist S uhad Qanita. "We supported her psychologically ... and, thank God, eventually we were able to find her a husband." Local human rights groups say it is the first such refuge in this Mediterranean

coastal enclave. At one stage, women under risk were transferred to the other Pa lestinian Territory -- the West Bank -- where they could be kept safe from angry relatives. But it is now virtually impossible for Gazans to get to the West Bank because of an Israeli blockade, which is vigorously imposed following repeated Hamas attac ks on the Jewish state. The new safe-house sits in a large compound of Gaza's Welfare Ministry, alongsid e a rehabilitation unit for young offenders, and presence of guards provides sec urity reassurance. It can shelter up to 50 women, in large, clean rooms, watched over by attendants who provide advice. There are four women currently staying in the shelter. One woman, ready to give birth, said she came in because of a husband who beat h er. "We hope the new baby will lead to a reconciliation with her husband," said Qani ta. Of the three others, two minors abused by members of their families had been for ced into prostitution. BREAKING SILENCE Qanita said she had been shocked at her new job when she came face to face with problems that were always hidden before. "I hope this is not a widespread phenomenon, but to some extent it is worrying," she said. "There are girls who are being assaulted with impunity." "We also try to educate families, and if a problem cannot be solved within the n uclear family we try to find an uncle or a relative ready to shelter the victim, but not in cases where a woman might be killed if returned to the family," Qani ta said. Providing aid to families and finding jobs in Gaza, where unemployment is over 4 0 percent according to the United Nations, are the main tools used by Welfare Mi nistry trying to help the enclave's 1.5 million people cope with a crippled econ omy. Empowering women to speak up against abuse is tougher. Women will tolerate physical and mental abuses in the family without bringing fo rmal complaints, simply in order to safeguard the integrity of the home, said Na eem, who is one of just a handful of Hamas female lawmakers. But women subjected to repeated sexual abuse are starting to seek outside help. Some go to police stations, others to tribal chiefs in what she said was a sign of growing public awareness. Gaza might remain largely cut off from the outside world because of the Israeli blockade, but rooftop groves of satellite dishes indicate that modernity -- or t he ideas of radical Islam elsewhere in the Arab world -- cannot be kept out. "Opening the safe house has been a good step in the right direction, Everyday we are seeing a growing awareness amongst local people," said psychiatrist Qanita.

"The taboos are starting to crumble," she added. (Editing by Douglas Hamilton) http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/international/Wife_battering_and_sexual_abuse_g et_attention_in_Gaza.html?cid=30728484