From: Becca Smith
Palestine announced that they are now using women for house raids in order to bring a 'softer touch' to the process. Before women joined the security force, raids were a scary thing, with men often kicking down the door if it was not answered immediately. Using women shows an example of Palestine applying difference feminism because Palestine is recognizing that women are capable of doing the job but they are seen as potentially more successful at conflict resolution than men, allowing them to possibly be more effective at raiding.
One positive factor of using women for security is it strengthens relationships between security forces and the local civilians. This is especially true "in conservative Muslim countries where the sudden arrival of strange men in the home-where women aren't covered in their outdoorwear- is considered deeply shameful." Now once police raid homes, the women officers the females aside and search them considerately in a separate room and the male officers do the same for the men. General Samaeeh el-Safy even believes that customs and morals are preserved by using women. Even though calling the raids 'softer' promotes stereotypes of women being gentler, the article says that the most important change is that the raids are respecting human rights now more than ever before.
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