Palestinian women in the West Bank are facing an escalating campaign by Islamist extremists attempting to stop their participation in public life.
Feminist activists in Hebron have warned of a climate of fear created by Hizb ut-Tahrir (HuT), an international movement that seeks to create a global Caliphate that was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK in 2024.
The group’s members have disrupted meetings and denounced campaigners and their organisations, claiming they are “corrupting” women, spreading Christianity and destroying Islamic society.
It is feared that the extremist campaign is being supported by former members of the now banned HuT group in the UK.
Pressure has come through social media, public statements, mosque sermons and organised gatherings.
Organisations working with women have as a result suspended activities and seen falling attendance at meetings.
The outside world has provided no meaningful support for the targeted groups “whether material or moral, local or international”, says one organisation’s member.
According to the UN Human Rights Office, similar harassment and intimidation by HuT to obstruct women’s rights took place in 2019, albeit on a smaller scale.
A campaign by Islamists has taken place over the summer this year, according to activists who say the organiser of a meeting on women’s political participation was targeted in a video threatening her by name.
HuT also condemned the governor of Hebron, Khaled Dudin, for allowing men and women to sit together at the screening of a World Cup match, accusing him of “defying God” by failing to enforce segregation.
While UN agencies do fund programmes on gender-based violence, humanitarian relief and women’s participation, they have yet to confront the campaign of intimidation.
“Attacks have increased since the beginning of July and into August,” one organisation said, describing a weekly rhythm of “calls for gatherings and attacks on institutions... particularly during Friday sermons” in Hebron, Dura and Dhahiriya – HuT strongholds within Hebron Governorate.
Seven years ago, the conflict centred on women who went running, and men and women appearing together in public. Palestinian Family Planning and Protection Association employee Muhammad traced the roots to the First Intifada: “Instability and lack of political leadership allowed political Islam to enter.”
Rateeba Alaedin, of the Sharek Youth Forum, starkly summed up the impact of the imposition of extremism on women: “They arrived so fast... early marriages, hijabs forced on women, women staying in the home, and our laws and politics becoming controlled by religion. This is not our Islam.”
Back then, HuT had formalised street-level enforcement through a monitoring group, Rijal al-Khlaeel (“Men of Hebron”), which disrupted a mixed-gender marathon and tried to break up a children’s music festival.
A counter-movement, the Freedom Runners, founded by three young Palestinians, numbered 25 members within six months and ran a mixed-gender cancer-research event.
HuT reported them for “mixing the genders in sport”. A further marathon was disrupted too.
In response, Mazen Alzaro, an imam and director of interfaith and human rights advocacy organisation Become The Voice, wanted to build “a co-ordinated, well-informed group of activists intent on pushing for progress and firm on equal rights”.
Seven years on, activists say the Islamist campaign has broadened far beyond mixed-gender events into a contest for control of public space.
On June 29, HuT members reportedly attacked a meeting of youth group Sawa’ed Forum on women’s local-election participation, accusing the Young Women’s Christian Association of using it to “spread Christianity” and corrupt young women.
On 19 July, HuT published videos and a statement criticising the Hebron Municipality event screening World Cup matches, objecting to men and women watching together. Later in July, the governor responded and the football dispute became a wider argument about gender mixing and public authority.
On July 30, HuT hit back saying: “The governor of Hebron defies God in his disobedience and speaks immorally.”
HuT supporters gathered at the governorate building demanding a ban on mixed-gender activity this month. The governor held his position, and several members were arrested. After “a major confrontation” with security forces HuT was forced to shut its doors for two weeks.
Other recent targets include a women’s walk at the Hebron City Stadium, and the Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling’s work on participatory budgeting and financial independence, which HuT condemned as “destructive to the family.”
The Islamist extremists are in particular battling against compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a human rights treaty agreed by the UN in 1979.
The Palestinian Authority’s decision to bar marriage under 18 in 2020 was met with a furious and immediate backlash, as thousands gathered in Hebron that December demanding Palestine revoke its ratification and ban feminist organisations.
A petition to revoke CEDAW circulated throughout the West Bank.
HuT on its website has branded the treaty “a Western conspiracy against the Islamic family unit”.
Palestinian activists in the West Bank say it is becoming increasingly difficult to defend CEDAW.
One said: “There are no longer any clear activities advocating for the Convention. Instead, there is a state of stagnation and fear.”
A document calling for formal gender segregation in public places across Hebron is now in circulation, backed by HuT members and leading figures in ruling Palestinian clans who together are said to be “working to establish agreements... to prevent interaction or participation between men and women.”
In an effort to counter the impact of the Islamists, women’s activists are calling for youth programmes to counter extremism and put pressure on HuT’s leadership abroad.
They claim the group’s Palestinian branch draws support from networks in the UK and Australia, despite bans on HuT in both.
“We hope that Hizb ut-Tahrir will be stopped by confronting the party’s leadership in European countries, who manage it from abroad.”
One activist highlights the failure of the international community, saying: “It seems contradictory that these same countries would support programmes aimed at strengthening the capacities of women and young people and increasing their political participation, while at the same time supporting those who seek to restrict such activities and attack organisations working in these areas.”
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