PART V: CONCLUSION

This article has argued that Palestinian civil society possesses a number of important features that will both be assets and impediments in the long struggle ahead to achieve democracy through constitutionalism. Decisionmakers must take account of these factors when designing constitutional structures. Utilizing a case study of women's rights, the paper illustrates the interplay between such characteristics as: the high level of education; degree of political pluralization; communitarian/hierarchial society; distrust of authority; and the multilayered legal regime. This article has confronted the question of how Palestinian custom and Islamic religious practices working separately and in conjunction, can be modified to advance the constitutional legal status of women, a professed goal of the Palestinian national movement.

Although there are many possible ways to justify progressive constitutional reforms, this article analyzed three interrelated options. First, there is the reinterpretation of Islamic doctrine as proposed by nation states and Islamic and feminist scholars. This approach involves tinkering or following law reform, leaving intact the basic patriarchial structure of the law. This approach is useful because where religious tradition and custom coincide in their support for a given social order, it is extremely difficult to mount successful confrontations to entrenched patterns of discrimination, until there is further social evolution. Although leading law reform can be instituted de jure, societal perceptions must change before de facto equality for women can be achieved.

A second approach to justifying the equalizing of the status of women is through the implementation of international human rights norms. The critical problem here with the adoption of the leading law reform technique is that it is difficult to ensure de facto obedience from the existing legal actors who may oppose reform. The constitutions of most Islamic countries have clauses forbidding discrimination on the basis of gender, and many have signed international human rights treaties guaranteeing the same. But complying with these norms in the face of traditionalist challenges is the dilemma facing most countries. Thus the Palestinian State must play a critical role in ensuring the enforcement of egalitarian legislation through all stratas of society. For example, Palestine must not only publish a new family code, but enforce it.

The third approach to justify ameliorating women's legal status is a Palestinian-centric emphasis on following the social reforms brought about by the intifada. Ultimately, legal change will only be successful if societal change is taking place as well. Since this is the Palestinian case to a certain degree, there is some cause for optimism about the success of proposed reforms. This optimism must be tempered by the fact that traditionalist forces will likely oppose most of the changes as inconsistent with Islamic practice and custom.

Only time will tell if the Palestinian self-governing entity or future independent state will be in the forefront of the Muslim world in adopting and enforcing a democratic constitution. Hopefully, democratic constitutionalism in Palestine will be accepted and become a tradition, habit, and national attitude.