Meet The First Woman To Perform Marriages In The Palestinian Territories

Tahrir Hammad thinks women, including herself, are too
emotional to serve as judges, and accepts without question an Islamic legal
dictate that sees two women as equivalent to one male witness for official
ceremonies.

Yet Ms. Hammad, 36, is a pioneer, having recently become the
first woman to be permitted to perform Muslim marriages in the Palestinian
territories. She seems not to be bothered by the subsequent criticism, even
from a former professor of hers, Hussam el-Deen Mousa Afana, who described her
appointment as “opening a door of a metastasizing evil” in a post on Facebook
on Aug. 14.

“Honestly, I didn’t think of what people would think,” Ms.
Hammad said recently. “I like taking risks.”

She added, with a laugh: “I wanted to show that women could
do it. I wanted to ignite sparks. I wanted to throw a bomb.”

Ms. Hammad is not the first Palestinian woman to occupy a
position traditionally reserved for men in Muslim societies. In 2009, a
liberal-minded jurist, Sheikh Taysir Tamimi, appointed the Palestinian
territories’ first two female Islamic court judges, who now rule on divorce,
custody and inheritance.