Hamas Women Seek Bigger Political Role

[oberliner]

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- A grandmother-turned-suicide bomber, a small army of women marching into a battlefield, thousands of veiled volunteers hitting the streets in an election campaign _ the Islamic militant group Hamas is increasingly mobilizing its network of female activists.

Yet the Hamas women, known as the Sisterhood, say such high-profile missions have not changed how the group is run: the men make decisions, the women have a supporting role, at best.

But even in the rigidly conservative movement, whose manifesto defines women as "manufacturers of men," some female activists are demanding a say in politics and in Hamas' military wing, which has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis in recent years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/24/AR2006112400628.html

[davidinalameda]

1. Hamas is another conservative theocratic group

they won't allow women any sort of authority

[k_jerome]

2. repressed Muslim women? no way...nt.