For women and girls, gender-sensitive legislation is one of the greatest gateways to security and improved status within society. Outdated legal frameworks, discriminatory legislation, and inaccessible justice systems are just some of the issues women and girls contend with the world over. In the case of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), the legal framework has yet to adapt to contemporary developments. The history of the region can be read in the current legislation, which is a patchwork of laws from various current and historical administrations. Indeed, the current legal framework in the oPt is a mixture of Jordanian, Egyptian, Palestinian, Ottoman and British laws, as well as Israeli
military orders, many of which were inherited from the colonial period. Yet, in the past decade, attempts at legal reform have encountered a series of barriers. Efforts on the ground persist,but change is slow to come.