The International Solidarity Movement welcomes the assistance of women and gay people (e.g. QUIT, Queers Undermining Israeli Terrorism) in resisting the Zionist entity’s occupation of Palestinian land. Your participation in Israel Apartheid Week at a university, direct action in Palestine, or participation in a Gaza flotilla all help the Palestinian cause.

As a female or gay activist, it is important for you to understand the cultural differences between your country of origin and that of Palestine. Please follow these guidelines to make your participation in Israel Apartheid Week, a Gaza flotilla, or your visit to occupied Palestine both safe and productive for the Palestinian cause.

Guidelines for Women

(1) Cover your face and hair with a hijab (veil) at all times. Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali said of rape victims in places like Australia and the United Kingdom, “If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it, whose fault is it—the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab (veil), no problem would have occurred.”

(2) Your right to control your body may be limited under Sharia (Islamic law). Per Maxim Lott in “Advocates of Anti-Shariah Measures Alarmed by Judge’s Ruling” (Fox News, August 5 2010), “Defendant forced plaintiff to have sex with him while she cried. Plaintiff testified that defendant always told her ‘this is according to our religion. You are my wife, I can do anything to you. The woman, she should submit and do anything I ask her to do.’”

(3) Your right to legal redress for sexual assault may be limited under Sharia law. Per “Iranian Mullahs Stone 13-Year-Old Rape Victim” by Koorosh Afshar (India Daily, October 26, 2004 ), “another girl, 13-year-old ‘Zheela’, was sentenced to “stoning to death” by another Islamic judge in the city of ‘Marivan,’ Western Iran. This poor child is sentenced to death because she has been impregnated by her 15-year-old brother.”

(4) If you are sexually assaulted despite your conformance to these guidelines, it is vital that you keep the matter to yourself lest it harm the Palestinian cause’s public relations. “Female Palestinian Peace Activists Suffer Sexual Harassment, Rape From Palestinians” (Zimbio.com) says, “It won’t make the front page of the New York Times, but it seems that female peace activists in Israel who go to Arab villages are looked at as ‘piece’ activists by the locals in the Arab villages. Women who go to these villages are sexually harassed, molested and in some cases raped.”

Gay Activists: Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell

Sharia defines homosexuality as an abomination, and it is punishable by death in Iran. Per http://www.glapn.org/sodomylaws/world/palestine/psnews003.htm: ” Sodomy carries a three- to 10-year jail term in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian legal experts say enforcement is at the discretion of local authorities and usually requires that the accused be caught in the act. …Israel, which decriminalized sodomy in 1987, is considered among the more liberal of societies when it comes to gay rights.”