TY - JOUR
T1 - Femicide and the Palestinian criminal justice system
T2 - Seeds of change in the context of state building?
AU - Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera
PY - 2002
Y1 - 2002
N2 - Despite the criminalization of abuses inflicted upon women, laws are still considered major sources of women's oppression. This article discusses how Palestinian society and its criminal justice system, during a politically formative period of state building, relates to "femicide." Femicide in this study pertains to the murder of girls or women for allegedly committing "crimes of family honor." Official statistics, Cassation Court rulings, and six documented cases were analyzed in depth to determine the role played by the penal code, the legal system, and the external sociocultural context in exonerating the perpetrator of femicide and placing the victim on trial. The data reflect a silent masculine conspiracy that empowers sexist and gender-biased legal policies. The article concludes by challenging Palestinian legislators to fight legal discrimination against women, It argues that state-building periods can be a "window of hope," offering societies such as Palestine's the unique opportunity to reexamine and reconstruct their laws from a gender-sensitive position.
AB - Despite the criminalization of abuses inflicted upon women, laws are still considered major sources of women's oppression. This article discusses how Palestinian society and its criminal justice system, during a politically formative period of state building, relates to "femicide." Femicide in this study pertains to the murder of girls or women for allegedly committing "crimes of family honor." Official statistics, Cassation Court rulings, and six documented cases were analyzed in depth to determine the role played by the penal code, the legal system, and the external sociocultural context in exonerating the perpetrator of femicide and placing the victim on trial. The data reflect a silent masculine conspiracy that empowers sexist and gender-biased legal policies. The article concludes by challenging Palestinian legislators to fight legal discrimination against women, It argues that state-building periods can be a "window of hope," offering societies such as Palestine's the unique opportunity to reexamine and reconstruct their laws from a gender-sensitive position.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0036942664&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2307/1512163
DO - 10.2307/1512163
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AN - SCOPUS:0036942664
SN - 0023-9216
VL - 36
SP - 577-605+507
JO - Law and Society Review
JF - Law and Society Review
IS - 3
ER -