GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Female police officers participated Aug. 5 for the first time in organizing traffic in the streets of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank alongside their male peers, to facilitate citizens’ movement.

This move comes as part of a program the West Bank police had launched earlier this year to promote women’s participation in the traffic police force and help ease the workload of traffic policemen. Women’s participation in managing traffic on the streets of Bethlehem confirms Palestinian women’s ability to work and confront male social perspective undermining them and prohibiting them from taking positions that men monopolize.

Maaram Abu Obeid, 22, a policewoman who joined the traffic police in Bethlehem, told Al-Monitor, “I graduated from the Faculty of Police Sciences and Law at Al-Istiqlal University in April, and I immediately started working at the police directorate in the governorate. I was later chosen to be part of the women’s traffic police force.”

Abu Obeid noted that, during her university studies, she took part in several trainings that increased her skills and gave her sufficient knowledge in police work, including traffic control. She added that being in the field was challenging at first, especially as it involves direct contact with the public, unlike her traditional police work that involved just working from the office.