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A new report from the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-SE) finds that Palestinian Authority textbooks contain gender-based biases, including biases regarding women’s mental capacity, leadership skills, and sexual behavior. It turned out to be permanent.
The report assessed efforts towards gender equality according to the 2017-2022 Strategic Plan published by the Palestinian Ministry of Education and examined 13 textbooks for the 2023-24 school year. According to the report, despite intentions to eliminate discrimination, efforts to address gender issues continue to address persistent gender issues, including depictions of women as inferior and emphasizing traditional roles, particularly in Islamic teaching materials. Mixed results have been observed in addressing gender issues, including bias. Nationalist efforts.
The report highlights the apparent consistency in contrasting portrayals of women, from defending traditional roles to glorifying women’s participation in nationalist ‘resistance’, including problematic glorification of female terrorists as symbols. It points out that the curriculum presents an uneven picture of gender equality due to the lack of approaches.
This depiction of women and gender roles departs significantly from UNESCO standards and the international gender equality treaties that the PA itself has ratified, and reveals a significant gap between the PA’s education policy and global benchmarks, and This raises questions about the impact of support and funding, the report highlights. It aims to promote gender equality in Palestinian education.
Mixed message: inferior in life, equal in death
The report lists 12 examples of widespread gender bias and bias, including suggesting that students run a campaign called “No to Gender Equality, Yes to Gender Justice.” In one class, teachers were encouraged to respond to the “false misconception” that “some women are smarter than men” by saying that it was true, but “not overwhelmingly.” Another example explains that divorce is in the hands of the man, not the woman, because “he thinks with her head and she thinks with her feelings, so if a woman takes the right to divorce, the family will fall apart.” has been done.
Another example describes a hadith in which women are said to be “lacking in spirit and religion” as momentary praise rather than humiliation. On the other hand, in some cases it is said that the head of state in Islam must be a man, as it is the duty of a person with a strong “body, mind, and spirit.”
Two other examples include statements that Muslim women who dress appropriately are protected from harm and that “no weak or sick person would dare to harm a woman.” This implies that the woman’s clothing choices are responsible for the assault, not the perpetrator. And it makes clear that women are the propagators of adultery, and that their adultery is more horrifying and vile than the adultery of men.
On the other hand, the report exposes glorifying the so-called “martyrdom” of women in the fight against Israel and encouraging them to kill, be killed, and send their children to their deaths. According to the report, even in these nationalistic examples, Palestinian women are portrayed as equals in virtue to Palestinian men. This includes praising female terrorists such as Dalal Mughrabi, the Fatah terrorist who killed 35 Israelis and seriously injured 71 others on a civilian bus during the March 1978 coastal road massacre. included.
“Infantilization of Palestinians”
IMPACT-SE is a veteran nonprofit think tank with more than 25 years of experience studying school curriculum in the Middle East and North Africa, from Turkey to the Gulf region, including Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Through internationally recognized standards of peace and tolerance, the institute primarily scrutinizes textbooks in state-sanctioned education systems and makes policy recommendations in collaboration with local ministries of education to improve local curricula. Creating.
According to Marcus Shehu, CEO of IMPACT-SE, several countries in the Middle East have made great strides in improving school curricula in the MENA region in recent years. However, when it comes to the Palestinian Authority, whose curriculum is also taught by UNRWA and Hamas, Shehu points to two major problems: the promotion of violence and anti-Semitism, and discriminatory views against women.
“This fosters an environment in which sexual violence against Jewish women is normalized, which we witnessed in the most unimaginable way on October 7th, when women are being held hostage in Gaza. We are all concerned that this is still going on against women,” the chef added.
Shehu reminds us that in Gaza, “generations have been taught that Israelis should be beheaded, that Jews should be exterminated, that it is better to die than to live.” . They are shown depictions of violence against Israelis, and we learn that jihad is the pinnacle of Islam.
“The encouragement of revenge against Jewish women is exemplified in Islamic education classes that teach about Jewish sexual harassment of Muslim women, including a hadith about early Islamic goldsmiths. This includes a story in which a Muslim woman was maliciously tricked into exposing herself in front of amused Jews, something that should definitely be taught to the youth of this day and age. No,” he added gravely.
The chef cites various takeaways from these lessons. “Men are wiser than women, complete gender equality is an injustice, and gender equality has been called a ‘biological lie.'” Women are responsible for sexual harassment by men. Because temptation mainly comes from women.
“This amalgamation of anti-Semitism, encouragement of violence, gender-based bloody slurs, and discriminatory views against women, taught to thousands of Palestinian children, is what the terrorists said in the October 7th attack. “This attack provides a window into how extreme sexual violence against Jewish women could be systematically weaponized,” he added.
Finally, Shehu calls on Norway, Finland, Germany, Ireland and other countries that support the Palestinian education system and allow gender disparities in school curricula to reconsider their policies. “This is the infantilization of Palestinians,” Shehu concluded.
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