2002/01/01 by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera Shalhoub‐Kevorkian · 55 citations
Medicine · Social Sciences · #Archaeology #Computer science #Context (archaeology) #Criminal justice #Criminology #Economic Justice #Femicide #Gender, Security, and Conflict #History #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies #Law #Medical emergency #Medicine #Middle East Politics and Society #Poison control #Political science #Sociology #State (computer science) #Suicide prevention
paper · doi:10.2307/1512163
published in Law & Society Review 36(3), 577-605 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2002/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
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.