Career
Al-Shanti was a member of Hamas and was the founder of the group's women's division. [6]
She taught at the Islamic University in Gaza until 2006. [5]
On 3 November 2006, she led an unarmed women's march that succeeded in breaking an Israeli siege on a mosque in the town of Beit Hanoun. [7] The Israeli military opened fire on the group, describing them as "human shields", one was killed and ten were wounded. [8]
In the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, she was the third candidate on the Hamas-led "Change and Reform" electoral list. [5] She was the most senior woman among Hamas deputies elected in 2006 and became minister in 2011. [4] [6] She worked as a faculty member at the Islamic University in Gaza, and was the wife (later widow) of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi until his assassination in 2004. [4]
In 2006, she claimed that an Israeli airstrike aimed at her had instead killed her sister-in-law and over a dozen other people. [9] International media confirmed that there had been an airstrike on al-Shanti's home and that it killed Nahla Shanti and Abdel Majid Ghirbawi. [10]
In 2021, al-Shanti (then aged 64) was elected as a member of Hamas' political bureau. The 15-member group is Hamas' highest decision-making body. [11] [12] She was the first woman ever to hold such a position in Hamas. [12]
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