RAMALLAH, March 2, 2017 (WAFA) – Majority of the Palestinian people believe that equality between men and woman in Palestinian society had improved over the past 10 years, according to an opinion poll published Thursday.
The poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre (JMCC), published in cooperation with the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, found out that 47.4% of those polled - with no notable difference between men and women respondents - said that equality between men and women in the Palestinian society had improved over the past 10 years.
Nevertheless, 12.8% of respondents said the level of equality had declined, with a larger number of respondents from Gaza, 19.6%, said equality had declined.
The poll found out that 48% of respondents said police adopt a fair policy towards women; the majority of these respondents, 52.5%, in the West Bank with 40.3% in Gaza. Moreover, the majority, 61.1%, said they believed that police deal appropriately with battered women while 22.4% said they deal inappropriately with them.
A much higher percentage of women in Gaza, 33.6%, felt that the police deal inappropriately with battered women - in contrast, 15.6% of respondents in the West Bank felt the same way.
The largest percentage of those polled, 42.5%, said they would support laws based on Islamic Sharia as opposed to 14.7% who said they should be based on civil law. The poll showed that women leaned more towards adopting laws based on Islamic Sharia, with 45.1% in support as opposed to 39.8% of men.
The majority of those polled, 83.8%, said they opposed the marriage of girls under the age of 18 while 16.1% said they supported it.
Likewise, the majority of respondents, 69.3%, said they opposed multiple wives while 30.6% said they supported it. It should be noted that 42.4% of polled men said they supported multiple wives while 80.4% of women opposed it.
Furthermore, the majority of those polled, 64.6%, said they do not shake hands with the other sex, the majority of these being women. As to why, the majority of those polled, 84.1%, said they do not shake hands with the other sex for religious reasons while 14.7% said for social reasons pertaining to traditions and habits.
A random sample of 1199 people over the age of 18 was interviewed face-to-face throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip between February 17 and 21. A plus or minus 3% margin of error was also recorded.
M.K.
