02.02.2006
No champion of the oppressed
Socialists should not celebrate Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections. Women and secular forces will very likely be the first to suffer, says Katherine Quinn
Hamas's victory is mainly down to the inability of Al Fatah to either deliver peace with or conduct a militant struggle against Israel. It has also failed to deliver anything like a civilised society for the masses of Palestinian people. Corruption and internal feuding within Fatah allowed Hamas to successfully - and wrongly - portray itself as the champion of the oppressed.
Not surprisingly, the Muslim Association of Britain was quick to celebrate Hamas's victory: "The MAB wishes to congratulate the people of Palestine both inside the occupied territories and around the world, on the advent of the legislative elections, and the results that emerged therefrom. Furthermore, MAB joins the Palestinian people in their hopes, aspirations and prayers that these elections signal the first step towards bringing the long saga of occupation, brutalisation and injustice which they have endured to an end" (www.mabonline.net, January 27).
In reality, the result is very likely to increase the injustice suffered by the largest section of the Palestinian people: women. The forced imposition of the veil is likely to be the first step towards Hamas's aim of creating a country run according to islamic sharia law.
MAB and Hamas are, of course, both national contingents of the Muslim Brotherhood. Naturally each contingent adapts to the political conditions of the country in which they operate. That explains MAB's enthusiasm.
What about the Socialist Workers Party? It too, is celebrating Hamas's victory. It is not that the SWP hopes MAB will be its partner in running Respect. Though this is hardly irrelevant. The SWP regards Hamas as an anti-imperialist force and an international ally.
The current issue of Socialist Worker (February 4) features a telephone interview with Musheer al-Masri, the Hamas MP for the northern Gaza Strip. And what an interview it is. Under the telling headline, "Hamas - we have the people's support", the comrades failed to ask a single critical question, merely publicising al-Masri's views on, amongst other things, suicide bombings:
"In the West Bank and Gaza Strip the Palestinians mounted fierce resistance to the occupation, including using suicide bombers. Al-Masri said the violence was not targeted against Jews, but 'against those who occupied our land and unleashed terror on our people'. While Hamas joined other Palestinian groups in coordinating resistance to the occupation, the movement swept the local elections last year and gained a reputation for its work in health, education and welfare."
That's all right then.
Although even most bourgeois commentators have managed to work out that the victory of this islamic party might be bad news for women and secularists, Socialist Worker did not think that these were interesting enough topics to put to their friend in Hamas.
It is, of course, true that Hamas has done work in "health, education and welfare" and has often acted as a substitute state, with the aid of Saudi Arabian money. Undoubtedly, it will run Palestine in a more 'disciplined' way and be less corrupt than Fatah. After all, Hamas is a strictly organised religious group. It is also true that, unlike the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas supports the education of women and is - officially - opposed to 'honour killings'.
However, we should be very suspicious about the claims made by Hamas during the election period that the organisation does not intend "in the foreseeable future" to impose its religious ideology - including its long-term commitment to sharia - on Palestinians.
Human rights groups in Palestine are warning that Hamas will be quick to attempt and impose sharia on the school curricula. The women's affairs centre in Gaza also fears that the imposition of the veil will be one of the organisation's first acts. For example, the centre warns, Hamas candidate Mariam Farhat said in an interview before the elections that her first parliamentary campaign would be for a law requiring all Palestinian women to wear the hijab. And more and more women in Palestine complain about harassment on the streets when they are seen out with their heads uncovered (see The Independent January 30).
Of course, campaigns for the introduction of the veil are not just about a piece of cloth - they are about systematically taking away the rights of women and the first step towards exercising total control over society. It is worthwhile recalling what happened in Iran after Khomeini came to power 1979. Just as in today's Palestine, there was a relatively liberal regime as far as women were concerned - until the new government employed violence to force them into line.
Yassamine Mather of the Iran Bulletin described the events in the Weekly Worker (in response to an article by Elane Heffernan in Socialist Worker in which she described how Iranian women and women in the west were equally oppressed):
"Khomeini's first fatwa after coming to power in March 1979 was on this very question [of the veil]. This instructed all Iranian women that covering their hair was obligatory. In today's Iran, no woman dares to go without the veil, whatever her personal views on the subject. This has not stopped tens of thousands of women, many as young as 13 or 14, being flogged for wearing a 'poor' or 'bad' hijab. This can mean a 'crime' as trivial as a woman showing a bit of fringe from under a headscarf.
"The theocracy has made a systematic attempt to confine women to their homes through legislation that makes work outside difficult - even going out of the house is cumbersome. This deliberate policy of gender segregation is characteristic of the regime of the mullahs - it has not been a general feature of Iranian society historically.
"This is particularly notable in heath and education. For example, hospitals are segregated according to sex. Given that there are far fewer female doctors than male, this means qualitatively poorer levels of healthcare for women. In education, there is a policy of segregation at all levels, including university - again with obvious detrimental effects on the standards of education for women" (Weekly Worker October 11 2004).
And there are enough examples from Hamas's recent practice (as well as their more dated theories - see Eddie Ford's article, opposite) that show how very likely a similar outcome is in Palestine. The Times describes how in October 2005, a Hamas-led council in Gaza halted a dance festival and islamist gunmen stopped a rap band performing.
Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior leader of Hamas in Gaza, has defended the enforcement of a strict interpretation of islam: "A man holds a woman by the hand and dances with her in front of everyone. Does that serve the national interest?" Zahar asked on the Arabic website, Elaph. "If so, why have the phenomena of corruption and prostitution become pervasive in recent years?"
He went on to condemn homosexual marriage, saying: "Are these the laws for which the Palestinian street is waiting? For us to give rights to homosexuals and to lesbians, a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick?" (The Times October 7 2005).
What will Respect and the SWP say if - or rather when - Hamas enforces the veil? When MAB starts to make excuses, as it undoubtedly will, for its Muslim Brotherhood co-thinkers, will they follow suit?
The signs are not good. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, Socialist Worker featured an article by Talat Ahmed and Kevin Ovenden, in which they desperately tried to defend the Taliban's imposition of the full-body burqa on all women: "The Taliban believed that imposing their model of behaviour could bring some order to the country." Therefore the Taliban "imposed ... the burqa, banning women from public activity". This, say our two SWP comrades, was designed to protect women and prevent them from "being raped" en masse (December 1 2001, not available online).
Socialists must take a clear stand against the reactionary anti-imperialism of Hamas and similar organisations. How could we ever convince the mass of people that socialism is the way to end their oppression, if we stand by and make excuses for the systematic oppression of over 50% of the population in countries like Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine?