More and more Palestinian women starting businesses

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More and more Palestinian women starting businesses

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From fruit stalls to chic ballet studios, Palestinian women are making their mark in business.

11 July,2012 08:24 pm

For Shyrine Ziadeh, a 24-year-old Birzeit University graduate, that dream was to open a dance studio.Now the proud owner of the Ramallah Ballet Center, the first in the West Bank, her sunny, top-floor studio is flooded with classical music and mirrors stretching from wall to wall. Little girls in pink ballet shoes and jump over fairy wings.I want to develop girls, she said. Ballet helps develop their point of view in life. We need such things in Palestine.Latest statistics from the International Labor Organization estimated that in 2008-2009, women headed just 5 percent of West Bank firms. Circumstantial evidence suggests the figure has climbed since then, fueled by economic growth and an increasing appetite for bank lending.However, the deeply traditional, male-dominated society that is prevalent across much of the Arab world, coupled with bureaucratic restraints unique to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, pose particular challenges for women seeking to get ahead.Many women in the West Bank want to do things, but they cant. Our culture is generally more of a mans culture. Women are trying to do things, but in small steps, said Ziadeh.Restrictions from Israel, which controls all entry points to the West Bank, only add to the problems, she said.Because of the occupation, we need a permit to do anything, she said, pointing to the difficulty of importing leotards and other ballet garb not available in the West Bank, for example.Although the odds are not in their favour, the outlook for women is improving in the cities, if not yet in the poorer, hidebound v i llages that dot the arid territory.Womens literacy and employment rates are rising. Female police units are integrating into West Bank forces, and women make up a quarter of Prime Minister Salam Fayyads cabinet.