abdulhadi, rabab (1998) _the palestinian women's autonomous movement - emergdence, dynamics,...
Post on 03-Jun-2018
222 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 1/26
The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement: Emergence, Dynamics, and ChallengesAuthor(s): Rabab AbdulhadiReviewed work(s):Source: Gender and Society, Vol. 12, No. 6, Special Issue: Gender and Social Movements, Part 1(Dec., 1998), pp. 649-673Published by: Sage Publications, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/190511 .
Accessed: 21/10/2012 18:37
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
.
Sage Publications, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gender and
Society.
http://www.jstor.org
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 2/26
THE
PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S
AUTONOMOUS
MOVEMENT
Emergence,Dynamics, and Challenges
RABABABDULHADI
Yale
University
Thisarticle examines
the Palestinianwomen'sautonomousmovement hat
emerged
n
the
early
1990s,
emphasizing
changes
in the
sociopolitical
context o
accountfor
the movement's
mergence,
dynamics,
and challenges. Usinginterviewsobtainedduringfieldwork n Palestine n 1992, 1993, and 1994, and
employing
historical
and
archival
records,
I
argue
thatPalestinian
eminist
discourseswere
shaped
and
influencedby
the
sociopolitical
context in which Palestinian
women
acted and with which
they
inter-
acted.
The
multiplicity
f
views
voiced
by
the women interviewed ttests to the
impossibility
of
homoge-
nizingandflattening
women's
experiences,
while the
range
of
actions and
strategies
employed
by
differ-
ent
groups
and
organizations
calls attention to contextual imitationson social
action.
In
the
early
1990s,
an
autonomous
Palestinian
women's movement
emerged
n the
Israeli-occupied
WestBankandGaza
Strip.
Relatively
ndependent
f
the
Palestine
LiberationOrganization PLO)leadership,Palestinianwomen articulatedviews
and
adopted strategies
that were
distinctly
different
from the
previously
con-
structed
magery
of
their womanhoodand the roles
assigned
to
them
by
their
na-
tionalmovement.While Palestinianwomen's activism
can be tracedback
to at least
the
early
1920s,
directconcernwith
women's liberationas
opposed
to women's in-
volvement n the nationalmovement
distinguished
he
1990s' Palestinian
women's
stands and actions.
In
1991,
the UnitedNations
Development
Plan
(UNDP)
Women's
Task
Force,
a
coalition of four women's
committees,
four researchand
advocacy
centers,
two le-
gal
aid
concerns,
and
tens
of
grassrootsorganizations
nd
voluntary ssociations,
as
well as feminists
academics,
organized
hree
workshops
n
which
hundredsof Pal-
estinian
women discussed and
produced
he Women's
Agenda
as a
strategic
vision
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This
article
is
part
of
a
largerproject,
"The
Limitations
of
Nationalism: Gender
Dynamics
and the
Emergent
Palestinian
Feminist
Discourses,"
researched
during my
undergraduate
studies
at
Hunter
College. Different
versions
were
presented
at
different
places, including
meetings of
the
Stratification
Committee
of
the
International
Sociological
Association
(ISA),
the
AmericanSocio-
logical
Association,
Ohio State
University,
he Graduate
Center
of
the
City
University f
New
York,
Bar-
nard
College,
and Yale
University.
am
grateful
o
ReemAbdelhadi,
TerryArendell,
ancy
Coffin,
Cathy
Cohen, Michele Dillon, Kai Erikson,Frances Hasso, Maha Jarad, JoanneNagel, Joseph Masaad,
Chandra
TalpadeMohanty,
Debra
Minkoff,
Rosalind
Petchesky,
Francesca
Polletta,
Belinda
Robnett,
Beth
Schneider,
Ella
Shohat,
Carolyn
Somerville,
Nancy
Whittier,
aime
Veve,
and two
anonymous
re-
viewers
or
commentson
different
drafts.
GENDER&
SOCIETY,
ol.12
No.
6,
December 998
649-673
?
1998
Sociologists
or
Womenn
Society
649
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 3/26
650 GENDER & SOCIETY
/ December 1998
document for
Palestinianwomen's
empowerment.
Also in
1991,
the
Palestinian
feministorganization,El-Fanar,ounded oprotest hekillingof women to protect
"family
honor,"
organized
street
demonstrationsn three
Palestinian
major
towns
inside Israel.
By
1993,
the
Directoryof
Palestinian
Women's
Organizations
isted
174 women's
organizationsoperating
n
eight
areas of
the
occupied
West
Bank,
Gaza
Strip,
and East Jerusalem.In the
same
year,
Palestinian
women
organized
conferences,
seminars,
and
meetings
in
which
violence
against
women,
women's
reproductive
health and
rights,
the
drop-out
rates
among
school
girls,
the
Islamist
imposition
of
a
dress code on
women
in
Gaza,
and women's
legal
status
and
per-
sonal statuscode were
publicly
discussed for the
first time.
A
shift
was
evident in
thediscourse of Islamistwomen who deviated rom the official line of theIslamic
Resistance
Movement, Hamas,
by
advocating
a
new
view
on
women's
roles and
freedoms.
A similar
development
was
also
witnessed
among
women
cadres
of the
four
major
PLO
groups
who
began
o
publiclyquestion
and
criticizetheir
organiza-
tions'
positions
and
practices
on women's
liberation.Publications uch as
the Ish-
tar,
Woman,
Women's
Voice,
and Women's
Affairs
began
to
publish
studies on di-
vorce,
early
marriages,
women's
professions,
and women's roles in
the informal
economy.
The
contentof women's
writing
n
major
Palestinian
newspapers
hifted
from a
focus on
cooking, properhousekeeping,
and
caring
for children o
include
discussions
of
political
affairsand
women's
rights.
Different
networksof
women
were formed
according
o
different
geographic,
programmatic, rganizational,
nd
ideological
concerns. In
1994,
Palestinianwomen's
activism
impacted
the
acad-
emy
as
feminist academics/activists ounded he
Women's
Studies
Program
at Bir
Zeit
University
with the
purpose
of
promoting
eminist education hat s
linked
to
community
service.
The
emergence
of the Palestinianwomen's autonomousmovement as well
as
the
multiplicity
of its
expressionspresents
a
puzzle:
Why
did the movement
emerge
at this
particular
ime,
considering
hatthe
early
1990s marked
perhaps
he
lowest
ebb for the Palestinian
nationalmovement?
How do we account
or
the diversedis-
courses and actions
deployed
by
different
"categories"
of Palestinian women?
Third,
how did the
challenges facing
Palestinianwomen
change
as the
context
in
which
they
act
and with
which
they
interact
changed, especially
after the Israel-
PLO Accord
of
1993?
This articleseeks answers
to these
questions.
In so
doing,
I
constructa
paradigm
hat
grounds
he
Palestinianwomen's
movement
historically
and
firmly
situates
t
in
the
sociopolitical
context
of MiddleEastern
and
global poli-
tics.
I
begin
by analyzing
he conditions
under
which the
movement
emerged.
then
turn
o a discussion
of Palestinian
women's
discourses
and
actions.
Finally,
I exam-
ine the
challenges
facing
Palestinian
women.
My work n thisarticle s informedby twotheoreticalnotions:First s thefemi-
nist
"paradigm
f difference"
hat
recognizes
diversity
n women's
experiences
and
acknowledges
hat
hese
experiences
are
shaped
by
the
intersection
of
multiple
sys-
tems
of
oppression
Flax
1990;
Hill Collins
1990;
hooks
1981;
Jayawardena
986;
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 4/26
Abdulhadi / PALESTINIAN WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT 651
Minh-ha
1989;
Mohanty,
Russo,
and
Torres
1991).
Second and
equally mportant,
see changes n thesociopoliticalcontextasinfluencingandshaping heemergence,
dynamics,
and the futurecourse
of the
movement
(Staggenborg
1991;
Taylor
and
Rupp
1993;
Whittier
1995).
Here,
I draw
on
analysis
that ies at the
intersection
of
political
and
sociological
concerns,
especially
the
general
frameworkof
political
process/political
opportunity
structure
offered
by
social
movement theorists
(Buechler
1990;
Katzensteinand Mueller
1987;
McAdam
1982, 1996;
McAdam,
McCarthy,
and Zald
1996;
Meyer
1993;
Tarrow
1994,
1996).
The
definitionof the
political
context,
however,
must
be
expanded
o
allow
for
the
particularities
f
the
Palestinian
women's case.
McAdam,
McCarthy,
and
Zald,
for
example, suggest
four dimensions in a definition of political opportunitystructure:"the relative
openness
or closure of the
institutional
political
system;
the
stability
of
thatbroad
set
of elite
alignments
hat
typically undergird
polity;
the
presence
of elite
allies;
[and]
he state's
capacity
and
propensity
or
repression"
1996,
10).
A
closer look
at
these dimensions reveals that
the
discussion
is
limited to
conventional
politics
withinthe borders
of a
single
state,
although
McAdam,
McCarthy,
ndZald
empha-
size that
political
constraintsand
opportunities
re
"unique
o
the national
context
in which
they
are
embedded"
1996, 2-3).
The conventional
definition
s
inadequate
or
explaining
he
emergence
and
dy-
namics of the Palestinian
women's movement. Palestinians
have been
dispersed
throughout
he Middle
East andthe world since the
establishment f the
state of
Is-
rael
in
1948.
Consequently,
he
context
shaping
Palestinian
nationaland
genderdy-
namics
is
not limited
to the boundaries f
a
single
state;
rather,
t includes
local,
re-
gional,
and international
olitics.
In
addition,
heir
emphasis
on
the
immediacy
of
political
opportunity
structure
may preclude
reference
to the
specific
historical
conditions in which a social movementarises and which
uniquely
gives
it
its
par-
ticular lavor.
Furthermore,
missing
from
McAdam,
McCarthy,
ndZald's
analysis
is an
account
of the interactive
elationship
between
gender
dynamics
andthe
struc-
ture of
political opportunities.
My
interviewswith Palestinianwomen and
men,
however,
suggest
thatthe Pal-
estinian women's autonomousmovement
emerged
as a
result of
historically
pro-
duced
political
and culturalcontexts thatcreated
gendered
political
opportunities.
The movementcame aboutas a culminationof a rich
history
of
struggles
n which
certain
conditions
prior
o the
changes
n the
structure f
political
opportunity
were
met. This
long
traditionof activism included different orms
of collective
action,
generated
various
organizational
models,
developed
networks
with
otherwomen's
groups,
and
produced
a
particular
ulture
of
struggle
andcombativeness.The
emer-
gence
of the Palestinianwomen's autonomous
movementat the lowest ebb
of the
nationalmovementpointsto the salienceof gender nstructuring oliticalopportu-
nities.
In
addition,
he
multiplicity
of discursive
and action-oriented
xpressions
of
the
Palestinianwomen's movementwere
directly
inkedto the
gendered
ociopoli-
tical
context
in
which
they
acted and with which
they
interacted.
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 5/26
652
GENDER
& SOCIETY
/
December 1998
RESEARCH METHOD AND
DATA
SOURCES
My
data nclude74
open-ended, n-depth
nterviewswith
68
Palestinian
women
activists
(and
6
men),
gatheredduring
ieldwork
n
the West
Bank,
Gaza
Strip,
and
ArabEast
Jerusalem
and
n
the United
States
n
1992, 1993,
and
1994. While some
interviews were 30 minutes
ong,
the
majority
asted from
two to
four hours.
The
topics
for
discussion
were diverseand the
interviewscan best
be
describedas
dis-
cussions and
conversations,
consistent
with
qualitative
eminist
methods,
rather
than
strictly
structurednterviews.
I
personally
ranscribed he
interviews n
Ara-
bic,
translated hem nto
English,
and
thematically
oded them
to ensure
maximum
accuracy, following
a
modified
groundedtheoryapproach Strauss
and
Corbin
1990).
Snowball
sampling
was
used.
I
asked women I
met
at
different
political
and
feminist functions
while
they
were
touring
the United States or
participating
at
United
Nations'
nongovernmental rganization
NGO)
and other
conferences or
whom
I
knew
through
political
and feminist
activist networks o
participate
n
the
researchandto nominate
other
women
for
interview.
tappedmultiple
networks o
thatI included
nonprofessionals
as well as
professionals,
women
with diverse
po-
litical affiliations
and the
independently
nclined,
membersof
charitable
associa-
tions
and women's
committees,
Christians
and
Muslims,
secularwomen
and Isla-
mists.
I used networksbasedin
Gaza,
West
Bank,
andEastJerusalemas well as
women
from
towns,
villages,
and
refugee
camps.
The
group,
hen,
s
representative
of the different
political,
social,
and cultural rends
among
Palestinian
women
in-
volved
in
the autonomous
movement.The
age range
was between
19 and 72 with
the
majoritybeing
in theirmiddle 30s
to
early
50s.
Fifty
women were
married,
13
single,
and 3
divorced. Seven were
homemakers;
he rest
of
the
sample
included
healthcare
professionals,
ocial
workers,
and
representatives
f the
media,
iterary,
legal,
academic,
and NGO communities.The
sample
was
evenly
divided between
college graduates,
holders of
graduatedegrees,
and those with
high
school
diplo-
mas. The academic
disciplines
of thosewithdegreesincludedengineering, itera-
ture
(Arabic
and
English),
economics, law,
community
health,
sociology,
and
po-
litical science.
Professions,
disciplines,
and areas
of interests of the
sample
overlapped.
For
example,
a
specialist
in
community
healthwas also a
sociologist,
an economist
was a director
of a research
enter,
and a chairof a women's
commit-
tee
was a
school
teacher.
f
anything,
his
overlappoints
to the blurred ines between
activism,
professionalism,
and interest-a
widespreadphenomenon
n the Pales-
tinian
society.
I
also relied on
records I collected
during
my
field research
1992,
1993,
and
1994) fromdiversesources.I examinedmaterialon thePalestiniannationalmove-
ment
from
documents,
magazines,
eaflets,
and
publications
of
the
PLO,
ts various
political
factions,
their
eaders,
and
their
supportgroups;
eaflets issued
by
the Uni-
fied National
Leadership
of
the
Uprising
(UNLU)
in the
occupied
territories rom
its
inception
n
1987
to
1993;
eaflets of the IslamicResistance
Movement,Hamas;
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 6/26
Abdulhadi /
PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT
653
clippings
from
the
two
major
Palestinian
newspapers
n
the West
Bank
and
Gaza
(Al-QudsandAl-Nahar)on issues relevant o genderrelations;andpublicationsof
Palestinian
academic
institutionsand
universities,
such as the
Women's
Studies
Program
and the
Community
Health
Project
at Bir
Zeit
University.
With
respect
to
women's
activism,
I
used
publications
of
various
Palestinian
women's
groups,
n-
cluding
research
centers,
grassroots
and activist
groups,
committees,
voluntary
or
charitable)
associations;
and
social,
cultural,
olkloric,
economic,
and
political
spe-
cialized
organizations.
I
drew on
writings by
Palestinianwomen
on
Palestinian
women,
in
bothArabic
and
English,
andon
demographic
nd
sociological
data
pro-
duced in
English.'
In
short,
no
documentor
historical
record hat
seemed
remotely
relevant o
my study
was
left unexamined.
THE
PALESTINIAN WOMEN'S
AUTONOMOUS
MOVEMENT
The
Palestinian
women's
autonomous
movementdid
not
emerge
in
a
vacuum.
Palestinianwomen's
collective actions were
influenced
by
(1)
a
preexisting
cul-
turalcontext of
gender
hierarchy,
2)
local
conditions,
and
(3)
international nd re-
gional
developments.
Women's
actionsand
nteractions
were
immediately
ituated
in a
local context of the
Palestinian
national
movement's
dismissal-despite lip
service-of
women's
aspirations
and
expectations,
especially
during
the
Intifada,
or
popularuprising,
and Israeli
policies
that
exploited
societal
norms
of
honor
and
the
expected
code of
morality.
The
evolving
localized
context within
which
Pales-
tinian
women
experienced
mountinggrievances
aw the
weakening
of the
Intifada,
the
political
prominence
of
Islamist
groups,
and
the
emergence
of
pseudomilita-
rized
youth
bands with the
self-assigned
role of
imposing
a certain
code
of
moral
behavior.
International
and
regional
developments
in
the late
1980s
and
early
1990s,
such as the
New
World
Order,
perestroika,
lasnost,
andthe
Gulf
War,
epre-
sented a new
set of
intervening
onditions n which
windows of
opportunities
were
opened
forPalestinianwomento
challenge
thenationalist-constructed
magery
of
theirwomanhood.
The
international
ontext,
specifically
Palestinian
women's net-
working
with other
women's
groups
at
international
atherings,
sharpened
heir
sense of the
injustice
wrought
upon
them
and
provided
hem with
other
models
by
which to
interpret
and
protest
their
experiences.
More
recent
developments-in-
cluding
the
Israel-PLO
Accordof
September
13,
1993,
andthe
subsequent
political
conflict
between the
Arafat
eadership
on one
side and
the
secular
Left
and
the Isla-
mist
groups
on the
other-radically
changed
the
sociopolitical
context.
This
com-
plex,
multidimensional,
and
fluid
sociopolitical
map
represents
the
context in
which Palestinianwomen activistsembarkedon a collective process of revising
their
historical
narrative,
negotiating
their
social
and
political
roles,
challenging
their
subordination,
nd
articulating
new
termsfor
their
participation
n
the social
and
political
life of
their
people.
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 7/26
654 GENDER& SOCIETY December 998
HistoricalRoots
Palestinianwomen'sactivismcanbe tracedback to atleast 1921 with the foun-
dation of the
PalestinianWomen's
Union,
which led
demonstrations
gainst
the
Balfour Declarationand
organized
he GeneralPalestinianWomen's
Congress
in
Jerusalem
n 1929
(Al-Khalili
1977,
77).
Palestinian
women
played
active
roles,
as
well,
duringevery stage
of their
people's struggle.During
he
1936-39 Revolt
(Ha-
dawi
1989;
Kanafani
1974;
see
also
GuardianCollective
1977),
Palestinianwomen
cared
or
the
injured,
demonstrated,
igned
petitions,
hid
rebels,
and
ook
up
arms
o
defend
their and
(Abu
Ali
1974,
30-32).
In the 1947-48
war,
which
resulted
n
the
establishment
of
the state
of
Israel,
Palestinianwomen
immediately
had to assume
the responsibilityof theirfamilies and their nation(Kazi 1987, 28-29), thus radi-
cally
altering
heir
social
roles.
Between 1948 and
1967,
Palestinianwomen
oined
various
political
movementssuch
as
Al-Fatah,
ounded
n
1965
by
YasserArafat
and his
colleagues
(Hart
1984,
116);
the ArabNational
Movement,
ounded
by
Dr.
George
Habashand
Dr. Wadi
Haddad
n
1952
(Khaled
1973);
Al-Baath;
and the
Jordanian
Communist
Party
(Al-Khalili
1977,
96).
Women also
played
key
roles
among
the Palestinian
ommunity
n
Israel,
which was
placed
under sraelimartial
law from 1948
to
1966,
especially
in
Al-Ard,
an
underground
movement,
and the
Israeli
Communist
Party.
In 1965, shortlybefore theIsraelioccupationof the West Bank and Gaza(and
other
Arab
erritories),
39
delegates,
chosen
through
nformal
ocial networks
and
representing
Palestinian
ommunities
around he
world,
convenedand formed
the
GeneralUnion
of Palestinian
Women
(GUPW)
as
a mass-based
nstitutionof the
PLO.
Reflecting
gender
consciousness
while
upholding
ts claim
to
Palestinian
na-
tionhood,
the GUPW's
charter
departed
rom
that of
the
PLO.
The Palestine
Na-
tional
Charter
(1968)
confined
Palestinian
dentity
to that
which is "transmitted
fromfather
to son"
and imited
Palestinianness
o
"anyone
born
to a Palestinian
a-
ther
[emphasis
added]"
(as
reprinted
n
Hadawi
1989,
310).
The
GUPW,
on
the
otherhand,surpassed his masculinistconstruct o recognizebothmotherand fa-
ther as
defining
the national
dentity
of
their children.
The 1967
Israeli
occupation
was a
turning
point
for
the Palestinian
movement,
as
well as
for Palestinian
women.
The
overwhelming
defeat
of the Arabofficial
re-
gime
led to the
1968-69
takeover
of the PLO
by
Palestinian
guerrillagroups.
The
newly adopted
PLO
Charter
defined
armed
struggle
as
the
"only strategy
or the
liberation
of
Palestine"
ffectively
makingmartyrdom
he
ultimateact
of
sacrifice
and
courage.
Meanwhile,
an environment
f
occupation
nd
resistance
elaxed
ocial
control,
thus
enabling
Palestinian
women to
join
guerilla
groups,
which resulted
n
their ncreased nvolvement n the resistance
movement.
In its
attempt
o
mobilize
the
largest
possible
numbers
of the
population,
however,
the Palestinian
national
movement
was
faced
with a
paradox:
how
to define
and
conceptualize
women's
roles
without
disturbing
he delicate
gendered
balance
n Palestinian
ociety.
Not unlike
other
national
movements,
he
Palestinian
eadership
drew
on
exist-
ing
societal
normsof
patriarchy
nd
at times
mirrored
he discourses
of their
colo-
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 8/26
Abdulhadi
/
PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
655
nizers
(see,
e.g.,
Fanon's
analysis
[1963,
1965]
of the
Algerian
revolution).
Thus,
the Palestinianeadershipdefinedwomen'srolesby constructinghreedistinct,yet
interconnected,
mages
of Palestinian
womanhood.2
he
first
mage,
the
"superwo-
man,"
glorifiedmartyrdom
nd nurturance.A leaderof the
GUPW and of the
Fatah
movement,
or
example,
contrasted he
ways
in which the
PLO
eadership
xpected
women and
men to behave:
No
image
was constructedorthe
manwho s
accepted
s an
activist,
ven f he
di-
vorceshiswifeandmarries
nother;
e
may
even
marry
nother hile
till
marriedo
the irst.
His
political
mage
emains
nshaken.
ut,
or
us,
women?Weare
expected
to
be
perfect
n
everything;
woman as o be
a
good
mother,
good
wife,
andat
the
same imea goodactivist, hardworker, nda militant; er homemustbe well-
tended,
her
social
standing ood;
and
her
appearanceresentable.
his
s
inhuman.
Do
they
want
us to
be
goddesses?
The
second
image,
the "fertilemother"or
reproducer
f
the
nation,
drew
on cul-
tural
heritage
and
encouraged
having
a
large
numberof
children,
preferably
boys.
Constructing
his
image
showed that the Palestinian
national
leadership
did not
contest-but
actually
acquiesced
o-Israel's definitionof
the conflict as
a "demo-
graphic
war,"
n
which
victory
is
achieved
by
the side
with the
largest
population.
Thus,
"bearing
more childrenfor the
revolution"
was
repeatedly
heard
from PLO
ChairmanYasserArafatas he exhortedwomento have no less than 12childreneach
(Najjar
1992,
258).
This call
mirrored he task
assigned
to Jewish
women
by
Ben
Gurion
Freedman
1990)
and
attempted
o
respond
o
infamous tatements
made
by
Golda Meir-the
only
woman
to ever become Israel's
prime
minister-who
pub-
licly spoke
of her
"nightmares"
aused
by
the realization
hat
upon
waking
up,
"an-
other
Palestinianchild will be
born"
Meir
1975,
as cited in
Abdo
1991,
24).
The
third
mage
conceived
of
Palestinian
womanhoodas
a
signifier
of
national
honor.The
nation,Palestine,
was
imagined
see
Anderson
1991)
as
a
vulnerablebe-
loved
woman,
whose
victimization
by
Zionist settlers
was
to be
vindicated
by
Sha-
babAl-Tha'r,oryoungmen of revenge, he nameof aresistancegroup hatemerged
in
the 1950s. Israeli
policies
were
implicated
n
the
consolidationof
these
images.
For
example,
shortly
afterthe
beginning
of
the 1967
occupation,
Israeli
nterroga-
tors
exploitedconcepts
of honorand
shameto
bring
Palestinian
women
prisoners
o
submission and confession
(Warnock
1990).
As
Warnock
and
others
(e.g.,
Thorn-
hill
1992)
have
shown,
Israeli
nterrogation
methods ncluded
hreatening
Palestin-
ian
women with
rape
and
attempting
n
some cases to tear
up
their
clothes
andto ex-
pose
theirnakedness o theirfathers
or brothers. n
most
cases,
Palestinian
women
prisoners
opted
to confess rather
han soil
their honor
and
disgrace
their
families.
As aresult,the national logan,al-ard walaal- 'ard,or"landbeforehonor,"was de-
ployed
to
suggest
that
liberating
the
homeland
took
precedent
over
preserving
women's
"honor."Rather
than
signifying
a
radical
discursive shift
in
Palestinian
national
ingo,
this
slogan
simply
suggested
a
different
orderof
priorities.
Nonethe-
less,
the
complexity
of
gendered
nationalist
politics
becomes
apparent:
While
in-
voking
this
slogan
enabled a few
victims
of
sexual violence
to
speak up
without
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 9/26
656
GENDER&
SOCIETY December 998
bringing
"shame" o themselvesandtheir
amilies,
it did not convince a
majority
of
sexuallytorturedwomen to report uchabuses, est theirreputationsbe tarnished.
For
example,
Fatma Abu
Bakra,
interrogated
or 50 continuous
days
in
1986 in
Ashkelon
prison
and
eventually
forced to
confess,
revealed
11
months later and
only
when
allowedto
speak
to herfemale
awyer,
Lea
Tsemel,
thatshe was
sexually
tortured
Thorhill
1992,
24,
31-32).
Others
doubted hat"landbeforehonor" adi-
cally
changed things,
as
an activist at the Women's
Affairs Center in
Gaza ex-
plained:
The
concept
f "honor"
till
persists
nd he
Israelis now t. Zionism
nd
srael ave
exploited
he
concept
f
honor nd
ts
connection
oPalestinian
raditionnd
ustoms.
And hishasplayed great ole nshapinghehistory f thePalestinianause.
Palestinian
women, then,
were
always
involved
n the
political
life of their
peo-
ple.
Women's
active
participation,
owever,
was
not
sufficient
o
radically
alter
he
status
quo
in
gender
relations.
This was due
to
the
Palestinianmovement'sview
that
national
iberation
was its first
and
only
priority,
sraeli
policies
that
produced
gen-
dered
occupation
practices,
and
Palestinian
women's
participation
n
the
reproduc-
tion
and
maintenance
of
national
gendered
discourses.
Intifada:
Hopes
for
Freedom,
Broken Promises
The
Palestinian
ntifada
began
on December
9,
1987,
as a
democratic,
grassroots
movement.
Bringing
together
all sectors of Palestinian
ociety
with the
professed
aim of
rolling
back 20
years
of Israeli
occupation,
he Intifada
called
for an inde-
pendent
Palestinian
state
with a new
set of
political,
cultural,
and
socioeconomic
values.
The
Intifada
haped
gender
dynamics
by
providing
Palestinian
women
with
the
necessary
skills
for their
uture
eminist
struggles,
enabled
hemto network
and
interact
with
each
other,
and
raised their
expectations,
especially
during
its first
year.Palestinianwomen'sparticipationn masse in thesocial, economic,andpo-
litical
affairs
gave
them
a
sense of
power
and
accomplishment.
A
preexisting
net-
work of women's
committees
and associations
see
Rupp
and
Taylor
1987;
Taylor
1989)
provided
iteracy
classes
and
organized
vocational
raining
n
sewing,
weav-
ing,
and
secretarial
kills.
Child
care
centers
were
opened
to
provide
a safe
environ-
ment
for children
while
their mothers
were
at work.
According
to
Eileen
Kuttab,
founder
of
"Our
Production
s
Our
Pride"
cooperative,
women's
committees
also
formed
economic
cooperatives
o sustain
heir
ivelihood,
to
boycott
Israeli
goods,
and
to
provide
a Palestinian
national
alternative-a
main
theme
of the Intifada.
t
seemed
as
if a
new dawn
were
breaking:According
o
Manar
Hassan,
cofounder
of
El-Fanar,
he
Palestinian
Feminist
Organization,
In ts
beginning,
he
ntifada
asnot
only
a
political
ssue;
a
social evolution
as
ak-
ingplace.
Women
egan
o
get
outof
the
house,
rom
heir
ocoon,
rom he
kitchen
and
washing
ishes,
and
go
outand
participate
ithmen.
As if
she
has
forgotten
he
whole
history
f
patriarchal
ppression.
he
couldnow
lead
popular
ommittees,
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 10/26
Abdulhadi
PALESTINIANOMEN'S OVEMENT657
buildother
ommittees,
ecide,
and
participate
n
decision-making.
his
s not
only
nationalism.
ere he
inkage
was
being
made
unconsciously.
New forms
of street activities
in which women took
part
included
international
women's
day
marches
organized
by
the
Higher
Women'sCouncil
(HWC)
n
differ-
ent
parts
of the
WestBank and Gaza.
A
member
of the
Union of
Working
Women's
Committees,
affiliated
with the
People's
Party,
ited the Nablus event on
March
8,
1988,
in which
over
1,000
women
participated,
s indicativeof
social
change:
Although
we do
nothavea barometero
measure owmuch f a social
mprovement
we
accomplished,
can
at east
ay
that
when
participate
n a
march,
my
mother-in-
law,or the storeowner topped ivingme the ookweall knew mplied riticism.
The HWC
was a concrete
organizational
mechanism
developed
as
a network
of the
four women's committees
that came
together
to
build a coalition
with
politically
unaffiliated women.3
The creation of the
UNLU
and the
emphasis
the
Intifada
placed
on
"unity
n
struggle"provided
he
leadership
of women's
committeeswith
the incentive to coordinate heir activities
and to
minimize
factional
competition.
The second
year
of the Intifada
aw
a shift in the local
context,
which
directly
al-
tered
gender
dynamics,
thus
crushing
Palestinian
women's
hopes
for
liberation.
This changeresulted roma combinationof the successfulattemptby the Islamic
Resistance
Movement,
Hamas,
to
impose wearing
the
Hijab,
or
headcover,
on
women in
Gaza,
harshermeasures
adopted
by
the Israeli
occupation
authorities,
and the
replacement
of the
grassroots
resistance
by
small
semimilitary
bands
of
young
men.
For
example, using
intimidationand
threats,
Hamas
activists threw
acid, stones,
tomatoes,
and
eggs
on
unscarvedwomen to force
women to
comply
with their will
(Hammami 1990).
As former
Palestinian
spokeswoman,
Hanan
Ashrawi,
put
it:
Themostvisible
aspect
f this
victimizations the
Hijab.
o
me,
hissums
up
the
way
youviewawoman:sa sexobject, sshameful,oyoucoverherup;as acommodity,
the
possession
f the
man;
s a
secondary
ember f
society-she
is
supposed
o
stay
athome o
support
hemaster
..
The
dress ode
reinforceshe
nvisibility
f
women.
(Hadi
1992,
15)
Palestinianwomen
were
also
subjected
o other
ormsof
abuse.
Hamas'coercive
act did not elicit a
single
word
from
the
UNLU
until
September
1989. After a
year
had
lapsed,
UNLU's leaflet no. 43 was
followed
by
an
appendix
upholding
the
rights
of women
not
to
adornthe
Hijab
(Hammami
1990,
40).
By
then it
was too
late: Almost all Palestinian
women
traveling
o Gaza had to
wear the
Hijab
or risk
being
attacked
by
Hamas. The
initial refusal of
national
groups
to
lend
support
o
their own
members,
let
alone the
rest of
women,
added
insults to
injury.
A
few
months
earlier,
on November
15,
1988,
the
Declaration
of
Palestinian
Independ-
ence
proclaimed
opposition
o
discrimination n "the
basis on
sex, race,
religion,
or
political
affiliation."
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 11/26
658
GENDER &
SOCIETY
/
December
1998
The
deterioration
f
the
Intifadawas also
reflected
n the
importance
Palestini-
ansgave to Isqat,or theprocessby whichIsraelexploitedtheconceptof honor to
recruit
Palestinian
collaborators,
primarily
women.
Literally meaning
"to
make
one
fall,"
Isqat
became
a household
expression
after
greater
numbersof
Palestini-
ans
were
arrested,
ssassinated,
or
expelled by
Israelbased
on
data
supplied
by
in-
formants.
The
practice
erved o
marginalize
nd
make
suspect
all
women activists.
A leaderof
the Union
of
Women's
Struggle
Committees
n Gaza
described
he
pro-
cess
of
Isqat:
Women an
be
turned
ntocollaborators
sing
a
cup
of coffee.Mukhabarat
Israeli
n-
telligence]
inds ut
who hewoman's est riend
s and
ecruit
er o
get
o their
rigi-
nal arget. heyused o useacupof coffee pikedwithdrugs utnowafterheymade
"technological
dvances,"
hey
started
o
make
women niff
[drugs].
ometimes
hairdresser
s
used.
A
woman
oing
or
a
haircut
s
given
a
cup
of coffeewith
drugs.
Once
unconscious,
hePalestinian
ffendi
an
Ottoman
xpression
meaning
entle-
man,
used
arcastically
ere]
who"volunteered"
isservices
o the
Israelis,
ndresses
her,
ometimes
apes
her,
and akes
pictures
f hereither
naked r n other
ompro-
mising
positions,
which
he,
hen,
hands
ver o
the
Mukhabarat.
wo
weeks
ater,
hey
send
orher
and hreaten
o
make
hese
photos ublic.
This s howonebecomes
aqita
[fallen].
Thecoincidence
of the
deterioration
f the Intifada
with
the
rising popularity
f
Hamas,
and
increased
Israeli
attempts
o recruit
collaborators,
was detrimental o
Palestinian
women.
An
emerging
"culture
f
modesty"
Hammami
1991,
78)
mar-
ginalized
Palestinian
women.
Withthe
exception
of
those
residing
and
working
n
relatively
less restricted
environments
urban,
middle-class,
highly
educated,
and
secular)
and
who
rejected
hese demarcation
ines
outright,
he
majority
of Palestin-
ian
women
were
unableto
seriously
challenge
threats
o theirhonor.
Instead,
hey
devised
culturallygrounded
measures
o
ensure
hat heir
reputations
emained
un-
blemished
while
guaranteeing
heir reedom
of movement
and activism.For
exam-
ple, according
to an activist
from a Gaza
refugee camp,
women survived
Isqat:
Through
heword f
mouth,
we
spread
henews
hat
nooneshould
avea
drinkwhile
making
ocial
visits.
No
coffee,
no RC
[a
local
soda],
nothing.
Even
while
visiting
your
own
brother,
o
not
drink
nything,
xcept
f
thecan
s sealed " t
one
point,
we
started
aying
hat
we were
asting;
we
were ither
making p
or he
days
ost
[while
menstruating]
n Ramadan
r
because t
was
a
Monday
r
a
Thursdaydays
during
which
asting
s
favored].
SHIFTING
CONTEXT:
WINDOWS
OF
OPPORTUNITY
As evident
thus
far,
grievances
concerninggender
subordination
were
shared
by
a
growing
number
of Palestinian
women
as
early
as
the
late 1960s. As
well,
women's
expectations
of
improved
tatus
arose
during
he
first
year
of the
Intifada,
only
to be
crushed
n
its later
phases.
Clearly,
Palestinian
women were not new
to
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 12/26
Abdulhadi / PALESTINIAN WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT 659
experiencing
activism,
building
organization,
r
engaging
in different
aspects
and
forms of struggle(see Tilly 1978).Why did an autonomousPalestinianwomen's
movement,then,
fail
to
emerge
until
the 1990s? The
constellationof
international,
regional,
and ocal events
n
the
early
1990s
marked,
perhaps,
he lowest ebb for
the
Palestinianmovement.
Ironically,
hese same
developments
opened
windows
of
opportunities
(Meyer
1993)
for Palestinian women
to
collectively
mount
their
challenges.
The
early
1990s witnessedthe
emergence
of
the
New
WorldOrder-a
political
development
hatreverberated t an
international,
egional,
and
ocal
level. Interna-
tionally,
the New
World
Order,
a
doctrine
conceptualizedby
then
U.S. President
GeorgeBush,
aimed at
reaping
he fruits of a situation n
which the
United
States
becamethe
only
superpower
n a
unipolar
world.The Gulf War
was the
most visible
manifestation
of
this
policy.
The
shifting
international
balance of
power
affected
Palestinian
women
in
different
ways.
At a
regional
evel,
the
collapse
of
the Social-
ist bloc undermined he
influence
of
Marxist
hought
among
Arab
communistsand
cost Arab nationalists
and
communists,
ncluding
the
Palestinians,
heir
most for-
midable
ally.
In
addition,
Iraq's
defeat,
a
bastion of
officially
organized
Arab
na-
tionalism,
and
the
division
of the Arab
states
during
he war
dealt
a
paralyzing
blow
to that
deology.
The
combinationof
a
lessened
influence of
Marxist
thought
and a weakened
standing
of the
nationalist
projectadversely
affected
secular
hought
and ncreased
the
credibility
of
Islamist
forces.
Furthermore,
a
professor
of
sociology
and
women's
studies at Bir
Zeit
University
attributedhe
rising
popularity
of
Islamism
to
conflicting
class
cleavages
as
Palestiniansat the
grass
roots
rejected
the
"bour-
geoisie's
efforts to
bring
about
Western-oriented
modernization."
ecause
"these
new
sectors were
alienated
from the
West,
they
wanted
something
authentic-an
indigenous
response.
Islamic
tendencies
provided
he answer."
Palestinian
women,
like Palestinian
men,
were
not
isolated
from
the
ideological
effects of
the
shifting
balanceof forces.
Firstof
all,
because
communistand
nationalist
groups
had cham-
pioned
the cause of
women's
liberation,
heir
gender
programs,
grounded
as
they
were
in
"Western" nd
"modernist"
otions,
could not
be
salvaged
from the
blow
dealt
to
their
political platforms.
Second,
the Marxist
and
nationalist
groups
of
which
women were
members ost a
base of
their
support
o
Islamist
tendencies as
the
latter
offeredan
alternative
authentic"
pace
for
women
who could now
organ-
ize
without
having
to
worry
about
violating
social
norms.
At
a
local
level,
as
well,
international
nd
regional
developments
were
particu-
larly
detrimental
o
Palestinian
women,
especially
as
they
affected the
PLO. As a
punishment
for
its
opposition
to
U.S.
intervention,
Saudi
Arabia and other
Gulf
states cut off theirpetrodollar
pipeline
to thePLO,thus
curtailing
he
ability
of its
groups,
especially
Arafat's
Fatah,
o
financially
subsidize their
full-time
militants
in
the
occupied
territories.The
U.S.-led
victory
eft the
Palestinian
eadership
with
a
no-win
"choice":
either
oining
the
U.S.-proposednegotiations
with Israel
(as
an
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 13/26
660 GENDER
& SOCIETY
/
December
1998
alternative
o an international
onference
underUN
auspices)
or
risking
a loss of
powerin a regiondominatedby the United Statesand its allies. Combined with
worsening
economic
conditions,
he
political
negotiationsdepleted
he
Palestinian
movement
of its
insurgent
haracter nd
preempted
ny
seriousconfrontationswith
the Israeli
military.
t
was
virtually
mpossible
or the
Intifada
o
persist
as a
popular
mass-based
resistance
movement.
As the Intifada
declined,
an
emerging
laid-off
army
of
Shabab,
or
young
men,
launched
a
campaign
of "social
violence"
against
their
own
people,
according
to
a feminist
professor
at
Bir Zeit
University.
Self-
assigned
the role
of a
morality
police
that
operated
n the streetsof the
West Bank
and
Gaza,
the
Shabab
embarked
n
"rooting
out"
what
they
viewed as moral
decay,
accordingto
a Fatah eader
in Nablus.
The effect
of
enforcing
a code of
morality
worsened
the
lot of
Palestinian
women.
How,
then,
did the
early
1990s
open
windows
of
opportunity
or
Palestinian
women
to mount
heir
challenges?
To
answer
his
question,
we must
expand
our
un-
derstanding
of
a
political
opportunity
tructure
o include
sociopolitical
changes
beyond
the confines
of a
single
state and
to
incorporate
ender
as a lens
through
which
we
can see
the distinct
effect
of
changes
n the
political
context
on women
as
opposed
to the
Palestinian
movement
as a
whole or even
the
PalestinianLeft.
Local
political
changes
in the
West
Bank,
Gaza,
and Israel
were not conducive
to the
emergence
of
the
Palestinian
women's
autonomous
movement.
Regional
and
nter-
national
developments
were
more favorable.
First,
Palestinian
women
deployed
newly
available
deological
concepts
such
as
perestroika
nd
glasnost
o frame
heir
claims
(Gamson
and
Meyer
1996;
Snow
et al.
1986;
Swidler
1986);
second,
Pales-
tinian
women
networked
with
the international
women's
movement
(Meyer
and
Whittier
1995).
Perestroika
mbodied
glasnost,
or
openness,
an essential
dea that
greatly
acili-
tated
Palestinian
women's
challenges, especially
members
of leftist
political
organizations,
who
constituted
majority
of activists.
By
challenging
he
rigid
Len-
inist
conceptions
of internal
party
ife,
especially
democratic
centralism
and
the
uniform
party
line,
glasnost
opened
spaces
for Marxistwomen to breaktheir
silence
and
to
criticize
abuses
by
their
leadership.
Historically,
Palestinian
eftist
organizations
ad
publicly
professed
support
or
women's
liberation
and
waged
a
vigorous
campaign
o recruit
women.
While
much
more
forthcoming
regarding
women's
rights
than YasserArafat's
Fatah,
Palestin-
ian
Marxist
groups,
nonetheless,
viewed
women's
participation
s a
constituency
issue
of recruitment
nd
mobilization.
Every
leftist
group
created
a
women's
bu-
reau
o
expand
women's
membership;
women
members
were
also
assigned
he
task
of
promoting
heir
groups'
political
platform
withinthe
GUPW
and other
women's
forums.Inaddition,becausePLOMarxistgroupsweremodeledafterLenin'scon-
ception
of
party
building,
hey
were
so centralized
hat
t was
almost
mpossible
for
their
women
members
o
negotiate
he fine
line between
democratic
entralism
and
gender
hierarchy.
As a
former
member
of
the
Popular
Front
for the Liberation
of
Palestine
put
it,
"In
most
cases
the two
fed
on
each
other,
reinforcing
our low
rank
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 14/26
Abdulhadi
/ PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 661
and status."
Marxist
women
leaders
practiced
hierarchical,centralized,
and
fac-
tionalrules of leadershipsimilarto their malecomrades.
Gorbachev's
ntroduction
of
glasnost,
however,
createda storm
among
demo-
cratically
minded
women and men. It diffused
(see
Tarrow
1996,
52)
the
Soviet
Communist
Party's
nternaldebates
to other Marxist-oriented
roups
around
he
world.
According
to
a coordinator f
the Women'sStudiesCommittee
of
the Bisan
Centerfor
Research
and
Development:
Of course
glasnost
ad
an
effect.We
do
not
ive in an
solated
ocoon;
nternational
developments
ffectnational
rocesses
ot
only
forthe
Palestinians.Wearenotdif-
ferent rom
Nicaragua,
r
any
other
lace
ntheThirdWorld.
s
eftist
women,
we are
influencedy changesn leftist hought,specially mong urallies.Glasnostmeant
thatwe
werenot
stupid
r
suffering
mental
efect. t meanthatwe could
discuss,
e-
bate,
and
argue-debate
heory
nd
argue
bout riticism nd
elf-criticism;
e
could
criticize he
structure,
he
hierarchy,
nd he
deology;
we could
question
wherewe
were
going.
In
addition,
he
spillover
(Meyer
and Whittier
1995)
from their
networking
and
interaction
with international eminist
groups
had
varying
effects on
Palestinian
women.
On one
hand,
Palestinian
women encountereddifferentbrandsof femi-
nism in
Mexico,
Copenhagen,
andNairobi.These encounters
provided
Palestinian
women with internationalmodels of feministstruggles,which made it harder or
them to
accept
the limited roles
their
leadershipassigned
to them. Above
all,
they
drewon liberation
trategies
ormulated
by
other
Third
World
eminists,
especially
those from
Nicaragua,
South
Africa,Vietnam,
and
Cuba,
according
o the research-
ers at the
Women Affairs Center
in
Nablus.
A
member
of
the Women's
Action
Committees,
affiliated
with the DemocraticFront
for
the Liberationof
Palestine,
noted that "thedialectical
inking
of feminist
and
national
agendas
n
ThirdWorld
women's
discourses,
particularly
hose
engaged
in
national
iberation
struggles,
resonated
with our own
experiences
and reinforcedour
determination." sociol-
ogy professorat Bir Zeit Universitycitedwritingsby womenfrom the Indiansub-
continentas
exemplary
heoretical
rameworks
hat
analyzed
and
posited
solutions
to the multitude
of obstacles
women
in
such contextsfaced.
Conversely,
an
activist
from
the
UPWC,
affiliatedwith the
Popular
Frontfor
the
Liberation
of
Palestine,
expressed
her
outrage
over Western eministswho labeled
"Third
World
women
as
nationalists,
ultra-radicals,
or
bearers
of
male
agendas."
Especially
directed at
Third
Worldwomen who refusedto
fragment
heir
gender
rom national
dentities,
this
line was
put
forth
at the Nairobi
Non-GovernmentalWomen's
Conference.For
example,
a
memberof
the
Palestinian
delegation
said
that
Betty
Friedanand Bella
Abzugechoedthewordsof MaureenReagan wholedthe officialU.S. delegation)
and
criticized
what,
in
their
view,
constituted a
"politicization
of the
women's
movement"
see
Cagatay,
Grown,
and
Santiago
1986,
401-12).
Egyptian
feminist
Nawal El-Saadawisaid at
a
feminist
event
in
New York hat
Friedan
trongly
criti-
cized her "because
I
dared
express my support
or the
Palestiniancause."
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 15/26
662
GENDER & SOCIETY / December 1998
The
emergence
of the Palestinianwomen's autonomous
movementat the
lowest
ebb of theirnationalcause underlines he need for a contextualizedandgendered
analysis
of
political
opportunity
tructure.
Accounting
for Palestinian
women's
collective
actions necessitated
1)
transcending
he boundaries f a
single
state and
examining
the
regional
and
international
ociopolitical
context
and
(2)
paying
closer
attention
o the
ways
in which
windows
of
opportunity
were
opened
to Pales-
tinian women
at
a time when
they
were blocked to their national
movement.
DISTINCT
EXPERIENCES,
MULTIPLE
DISCOURSES,
DIVERSE STRATEGIES
The
Palestinian
women's autonomous
movement,
I
argue, emerged
from the
combination
of
international,
egional,
and
local
conditions;
he cumulative
strug-
gles
of
Palestinian
women;
the
effects of
networking
with other women
from
around
he
world; and,
of
course,
the
Intifada.As is the case
with other women's
movements
in
the Third
World
(Jayawardena
986;
Mohanty,
Russo,
and Torres
1991),
the Palestinian
women's
autonomousmovement
was not a uniform
develop-
ment,
nor
did it
speak
with
a
single
voice. The
roots of
proliferating
women's dis-
courses
andaction-oriented
trategies
an be attributedo
a
long history
of activism
(see
Rupp
and
Taylor
1987;
Taylor
1989).
During
this
history,
Palestinianwomen
generated
different
orms
of collective
action and
organizational
models,
formed
networks
among
themselves
and
with international
women's
groups,
and createda
particular
ulture
(see
Whittier
1995)
of
struggle
and combativeness
around
spe-
cific
feminist
identities
see
Taylor
and
Whittier
1992).
As Hanan
Ashrawi,
ormer
Palestinian
pokesperson,
xplained
n her
keynote
address
at the first
plenary
ses-
sion
of the Global
Feminist
Conference,
organized
n
1992
by
the
National
Organi-
zation
for Women
and
held
in
Washington,
D.C.:
Myparticipationn thepeaceprocesss notbecause f anaccident fhistory ndnot
as a result
f tokenism
r
symbolic
women's
resence.
t s rather
part
f
thecumula-
tive
achievements
f
Palestinian
omenwho
have
struggled
or so
long
to
make
themselves
eard,
o
make heir chievements
elt,
and o
forge place
or
hemselves,
a
place
of
equality
with
he
men,
egardless
f allthedifferent
ypes
of
oppression
e
suffer
rom.
Partly
because
of the
context
n which
the movement
developed,
and
partly
be-
cause
of the
diversity
n
the lives
and
experiences
of
the
women
whose actions
and
interactions
haped
ts
course,
a
range
of discourses
emerged,depending
argely
on
the situationof differentconstituenciesof Palestinianwomen.While some Pales-
tinian
women
accommodated
hemselves
to the
sociopolitical
status
quo
as a sur-
vival
strategy
ntended
o
shield them
from
social
ostracism
and
political
isolation,
more
oppositional
views
and action-oriented
trategies
were
generally
articulated
by
women
whose social-economic
location afforded
hem the
ability
to be more
confrontational.
My
discussion
below
includes
emergent
accommodational
emi-
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 16/26
Abdulhadi
PALESTINIANOMEN'S
OVEMENT663
nist
discourses
among
activists
who chose to
struggle
for women's
rights
from
within IslamistandPLO leftist and mainstreamgroups.I also discuss the opposi-
tional
feminist discoursesof activists
engaged
n
contesting
dominantviews on
re-
production
andwomen's bodies.
I
must
stress
that
although
he
examples
discussed
here
may
seem to
represent
ither
extreme,
he situation"on he
ground,"
s
militant
women describe
it,
is
messier
for
a
couple
of reasons.
First,
most women I inter-
viewed
expressed
contradictory
iews that cannot be
neatly
framed
as either
ac-
commodation or confrontation.
And
second,
confrontationalactions
produced
a
normalization of
previously
considered taboo
issues,
while what
might
have
seemed at first
glance
as accommodation urned out to
be
of
extreme
value to
women's
empowerment.
The secular
women I interviewed in
1993
shared a
consensus that
Islamist
women's views and
actions were accommodationist.
However,
such
conclusion is
contradicted
by
the visions articulated
y
Islamist
women
n
my
interviews.Forex-
ample,
every
Islamistwoman
I interviewed n Nablus
and Gaza
departed
rom
Ha-
mas and
strongly
criticized
the
imposition
of
the
Hijab
on
women,
invoking
the
Muslim
dictum,
"there s no
imposition
n
religion."
Also,
both the director
of the
Educational
Development
Center n Gaza anda leaderof the
Muslim Woman's
So-
ciety
in
Nablus
emphatically
stressedthe need for women
to
engage
in
Ijtihad,
or
the
interpretation
f Islamic
scripture,
o
contestthe dominant
"anti-women
ulings
by
conservative
clerics."
The
Gaza
director,
or
example,
said that she
"refused o
accept
the
rigid rulings"
hat
prohibit
women from
physically
coming
in
contact
with men
to
whom
they
are
not related
by marriage
or
by
blood.
Categorically
op-
posed
to women's
seclusion
in the
home,
this
religious
woman
said that he
exigen-
cies of her work
necessitated
that
she shook
hands with men and that
she did
not
cover
her
hair while
hosting
foreign
women,
contrary
o
conservative
eachings.
The
Nablus leaderalso
engaged
n
interpretation
s
she
stronglydisagreed
with an-
other
member
of
her
group
who
was
opposed
to
birth
control.
According
to the
leader,
Ijtihad
and
concern
for women's health
make it
possible
to use
contracep-
tives. Islamistwomen deviated romthestrictdoctrineadvocated
by
theIslamistor-
ganizations
of
which
they
were eithermembersor
supporters
or two
reasons.
First,
theirworldview
upheld
Islam as a
belief
system
and
a
way
of life.
Second,
the emer-
gence
of the Palestinianwomen's
autonomousmovement
made t
impossible
for
Is-
lamist
women not to come
up
with
answers to issues
of women's
rights
initially
raised
by
secularists.
The
two factors
motivated these
women to
articulate an
Islamist-shaped
rame for
women's liberation
by
incorporating
ifferent
elements
from
their context: classical Muslim
tenets,
Ijtihad,
and
socially
acceptable
femi-
nist
practices
(Snow
et
al.
1986).
Women who recognized the limitations of the PLO political organization o
which
they belonged
butmaintained heir
membershipmay
be
classified
as
accom-
modationist.How
else can we
reconcile
the
questions
raised
by
a Fatah
member
who
complained
aboutthe
unequal
distribution f her
organization's
esources
be-
tween men
andwomen:
"Why
does he
have a
fax,
a
car,
a car
phone,
an
office,
and a
computer,
while I
have
nothing.
And on
top
of
everything
lse,
I
have
to walk to
my
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 17/26
664 GENDER & SOCIETY /
December
1998
meetings'?
am a
full-time
[on
monthly salary]
activisttoo "
with
her
insistence to
maintainhermembership?And whatabout a PopularFrontfor the Liberationof
Palestine
(PFLP)
memberwho had no
doubt
thather
group
"privilegesrifaq
[male
comrades]
over
rafiqat
[female
comrades]"
but refused to
resign?
At
first,
it
may
seem
that these
women did not know what was
best
for them.
However,
both were
fully
aware
of what
they
were
doing.
The Fatahactivist
explained
hatshe felt more
empowered
as
a
member of
a
majororganization
han as an
unaffiliatedactivist.
The PFLP
member,
on the other
hand,
said that she and
otherwomen could
influ-
ence
attitudes
and
policies
more on
the
inside thanon
the
outside,
especially
when
employing
a
strategy
of "constructive
ngagement"
n which
they sought
to
dia-
logue,
to
debate,
to
pressure,
and to
push
their
male comrades
toward
change.
Among
the actions
pursued
was
the
publication
of a
poem
entitled,
"An
nitialDia-
logue
with our
Companeros
Who
Do Not Wash Their
Socks,"
written
by
Cuban
poet
Milagros
Gonzales
and
published
by
the Union
of
Palestinian
Women's
Com-
mittees,
identified
with the
Popular
Front.The Union
employed
he
poem
as
a
vehi-
cle
by
which
they sought
to raise the
consciousness
of
theircomrades
by encourag-
ing
women,
on
one
hand,
o
protest
heirsubordination
while
embarrassing
men,
on
the
other,
by depicting
their
behavioras unfit
for
revolutionaries,
specially
given
the
high
esteem
with which
Palestinian eftists hold
the Cuban
experience.
On the other
end
of the
continuum,
more
oppositional
discourses
andconfronta-
tional actions
emerged among
two
"categories"
of
women: the more-educated
middle-class
women,
especially
those
receiving
theireducation
abroad,
and
politi-
cally
independent
activists
whose
fluency
in
foreign languages
and
freedom to
travelabroad
nabled
hemto
adopt
moreradical
eminist
stands han he rest of
the
women's
movement.
Some of these
women
teach
at Palestinian
colleges
and uni-
versities,
others
are either
leaders
or researchers
at
women's
centers,
and
a
third
group
s
made
up
of Palestinian
eminists
n Israel
who view themselves as
an inte-
gral part
of
the Palestinian
women's
movement.
Oppositional
discourses
focused
on
conceptualizing
a new
vision of women's
bodies
and
social roles. While
first
viewed as
socially
confrontational nd isolated,these discoursesgraduallypro-
duced
socially
acceptable
concrete
actions.
Take,
or
example,
the
difficulty
n
op-
posing
the
"demographic
war"
argument
hat
was
deployed
by
Israel
and
adopted
by
the PLO.
At the
beginning,
t was
a handful
of Palestinian
eminists
who
refused
to
accept
the
perception
of their
bodies
as
reproductive
essels
for
future
genera-
tions,
or
"hatcheries,"
s
former
Palestinian
pokeswoman,
Hanan
Ashrawi,
put
it
(Hadi
1992,
16).
Popularizing
uch
a
position,
however,
was
almost
mpossible
be-
cause
of
the
intervening
ociopolitical
context
n which
massacres,
dislocation,
and
miserable
iving
conditions
for the
Palestinians
coalesced
with
expanding
Jewish
settlementsandvariousIsraeliright-wingcalls for"transfer,"rmassexpulsionof
Palestinians
rom
their and.
While
recognizing
hese
constraints,
Rita
Giacaman,
the director
of the
Community
Health
Project
at
Bir Zeit
University,
nonetheless
n-
sisted
on
exposing
the
contradictory
LO
stand:
"ThePLO
cannot
continue
to
ask
women to be
politically
and
socially
involved
while also
demanding
hat
hey
'bear
more children
or
the revolution.'
What
we need
is a
Palestinian
population
policy."
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 18/26
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 19/26
666
GENDER
&
SOCIETY
/
December
1998
they
confrontedconservative lerics.
Opportunities
were
relatively
more
available
to feministprofessorswho were engagedin academicproduction.Likewise, the
very
natureof internal
party
culture
placedorganizational
onstraints
n
challenges
to
gender
hierarchy
made
by
women cadre of
PLO
groups.
Conversely,
nonaffili-
ated women
working
in
researchcenters faced less such obstacles in
articulating
their
views as
they
interacted
with
other
feminists, intellectuals,
and with
the out-
side world.
THE ISRAEL-PLO ACCORD
AND
ITS AFTERMATH
The Israeli-Palestinian
Accord,
signed
in
Washington,
D.C. on
September
13,
1993,
changed
the context for Palestinianwomen's collective
action,
raising
ques-
tions
about the
prospects
of their autonomousmovement. Initial
signs,
however,
were not
promising.
Anyone
watching
elevision
or
reading
a
newspaper
ould not
fail to notice
the masculinized
makeup
andthe tone5
of
those
gathered
or the White
House
ceremony.
It is
no wonder that almost all
the Palestinianwomen
I
inter-
viewed
shareda
common concern
that within the context
of a future
Palestinian
authority,
heir
fate
may
not be
very
different rom
thatof women
in
othernational
movements
once
a state
apparatus
s
set
in
place.
The
fact that
the PLO never
attempted
o
provide
an
equal space
for
women has
been
amply
demonstrated
n this articleand
elsewhere
(Abdo
1991;
Abu
Ali
1974;
Al-Khalili
1977;
Peteet
1991;
Strum
1992).
Thus,
no reasonexists
to
expect
a radi-
cal
change
n the
posture
of the PLO.
While the
previous
political
context
was
quite
fluid and
thusenabled
women
to
organize,
uch
fluidity
did not exist
withinthe con-
fines of a
self-rule
authority,
whose
first
priority
continues
to
be
the
financing
and
the
deployment
of a
police
force. Another
alarming ign
to
women
was the
possible
alignment
and/or
rucebetween
the Palestinian
authority
nd Islamist
groups.
Pal-
estinian
women
expressed
well-founded
ears hat
anytime
he PLOand
Hamas,
or
example,
come to terms,a
repetition
of the 1989
Hijab
episode
becomes
possible.
Activists
in
Nablus,
Ramallah,
and
Gaza wondered:
If the PLO did
not
defend
women
during
he
heyday
of the
Intifada,
would it be realistic
o
expect
it to
behave
otherwise
n its decline?
Anti-Arafat
lliancesbetween
eftist
andIslamicist
groups
were also
formedat
the
expense
of
women.
An
activist
n
Gaza,
for
example,
nar-
ratedthe electoral
process
of
the Palestinian
Accountants
Union
in
Gaza:
A
month
go [July
1993]
was
alking
o
womenwho
oined
henationalist
lock
n
the
Accountants'
nion.
asked
hem,
"If
you
have
between
00
o
150women
mem-
bers,
howcome
none
of
you
wasnominated
or he
nationalist
late?"
One
said,
"In-
shallah
God
willing]
next
year
Thenationalistsoldus: vote orusnowandwewill
include ne
ortwo
of
you
next
year.'
BecauseHamas
wasthere
ow
[in
1993elec-
tions],
no woman
was allowed
o
run.
In
view
of
such
gloomy
prospects,
how did Palestinian
women
go
about
negoti-
ating
their
rights?
One
way
was
through
ntensified
efforts
o
drafta Personal
Status
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 20/26
Abdulhadi / PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
667
Code.
Beginning
in 1988 after the declarationof Palestinian
ndependence,
at-
temptsweremadeby academicfeminists andby women's bureausof the Popular
Front,
Democratic
Front,
and the Palestinian
People's Party
o
put
to
practice
the
much-celebrated
passage
from the Declaration
of
Palestinian
Independence
hat
pledged
nondiscrimination
n the
basis
of
sex, race,
religion,
or
political
affiliation.
Leftist women
sought
to
legislate
a
Personal
Status
Code that
guaranteed
women's
rights
in such matters
as
marriage,
divorce,
custody,
education,
employment,
and
decision
making.
As
greater
numbersof Palestinianwomen became involved
in
founding
an
autonomous
movement,
the discussion of
a
new
social code was
no
longer
limited to
a select few. This
was
also
indicative
hat the time
for
street
pro-
tests has passed and that new frames,forms of action,andmobilizing strategies
were needed.
Three
distinct drafts
of the Declarationof
Principles
of PalestinianWomen's
Rights,
a
precursor
o the
Code,
were circulated
n
1993.
A
majority
of activists
I
in-
terviewed
said that the context
in
which these drafts were drawn ncreased their
radicalism and
feminist combativeness. A leader of the
Union
of
Palestinian
Women's Committees
observed,
"Because Palestinianwomen
in
the West Bank
and Gaza
suffered
grave
osses and
waged
a
serious
struggleagainst
the Israelioc-
cupation,
we were less
willing
to
compromise
our
rights
undera Palestinianrule."
Thus,
the document
drafted
by
the
occupied
territories'branchof the GUPW was
the most radical.
The second
was
adopted
by
the
leadership
of GUPW
in
Tunis,
while the
third,
adopted
by
a
group
of GUPW leaders in
Jordan,
represented
he
lowest
possible
common denominator n which Palestinianwomen
and men could
agree.
The Tunis draft
was less
accommodating
han the Jordan
document;
the
women involved
in
producing
t includeda
number
of
Palestinian eaders who ex-
perienced
hardship
and
exile,
some of whom
having,
for
political
reasons,
to relo-
cate
many
times. In
addition,
he GUPW
Secretariat
n
Tunis
was made
up
of
repre-
sentatives of differentPLO
factions,
including
the leftist
groups
that had a
social
program
or women's
empowerment.
And
although
he
Palestinian eftist vision for
women's liberation eft
a
lot to be
desired,
t was
more
sympathetic
o Palestinian
women's concerns than the vision
of Palestinian
centrists.
By
contrast,
he
group
drafting
the document in Jordan
was made
up
of
middle-class
intellectuals and
GUPW
leaders,
whose
political
views
did not force them
to move from
one
place
to
another.
Public
announcement f the Declaration
of
Principles
on
PalestinianWomen's
Rights
was
constantlydelayed.
According
o a
GUPW eader n
Jordan,
rom
Sep-
tember 1993 to
August
1994,
different
political
events,
such as the
Hebronmassa-
cre of
29 Palestinians
by
an
Israelisettler n
February
1994,
precluded
making
such
anannouncement ecausethe
majority
of thePalestinianswerefocused on the
trag-
edy.
In
August
1994,
I
traveled o
Jerusalem o attend he
press
conference
organ-
ized
by
activists from women's
NGOs
at
the National
Palacehotel to
announce he
Declaration,
as
formulated
by
the GUPW in the
West Bank
and
Gaza. Over 100
Palestinian
women
congregated
rom
different
parts
of
the West Bank
and
Gaza,
representing
different
organizations,
committees,
centers,
and
intellectual con-
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 21/26
668 GENDER
& SOCIETY /
December
1998
cerns.
Some women
handed
out
leaflets and brochures.Others
exchanged
receipts
andmoney.Yet others,seekingmediaexposure,carriedphotosof theirrelatives
who were detained
by
the
Israeli
military.
n
short,
he scene
resembled
a
festival
of
achievement,
the
atmosphere
illed with
anticipation
and
hope.
However,
as the
press
conference
got
under
way,
the Minister or Social
Affairs in
the Palestinian
National
Authority
arrived rom Gaza
bearing
a
message
from
Yasser Arafatand
accompanied
by
two
male
bodyguards.
The
minister's
nsistenceon
addressing
he
media
produced
mixed reaction
by
the
organizers.
While
supporters
of
Arafat's
group
were
enthusiastic,
he
majority
of the women
protested:
Activists who
were
politically
affiliatedwith both the secularand Islamist
opposition
did not want to
bestowlegitimacyon Arafat'spoliticalnegotiationsby offeringhim a publicplat-
form,
nor
did
they
wantto allow the Palestinian
Authority
o
reap
he resultsof
their
efforts and be
portrayed
by
internationalmedia as an advocateof
women's
rights.
Other
politically independent
women
were
dismayed
at the
usurpation
of the
NGOs'
space
by
Arafat's
rule. A
compromise
was
eventually
reached
n
which the
minister
was allowed to
readout Arafat's
message
as
long
as she
identifiedherself
as an official
of the
PLO,
a liberation
movement,
rather han he self-rule
apparatus
of the Palestinian
Authority.
However,
he ministerdid
not
comply
with
the
agree-
ment,
causing
some leftist
women to
interrupt
erwith anti-Oslo
slogans.
The min-
ister's
bodyguards,
hen,
assaulted wo women activists from the secular
opposi-
tion.
As a
result,
he
press
conference
was
suspended
andno
declaration
was
made.
Thus,
while
social
movements
emerge
within,
or because
of,
a
specific receptive
context,
political
developments
also intervene
o
subvert
he
smooth
sailing
of col-
lective action
(Meyer
1993).
One
response
to such
challenges
of hostile
environ-
ment
to social
movements
is a
greater
emphasis
on inclusiveness
and
coalition
building.
This was the
case with Palestinian
women.
In
particular,
he
struggles
over
the Personal
Status
Code
highlighted
socioeco-
nomic differences
among
women.
Rita
Giacaman,
for
example,
suggested
that
class
differences
might
arise as middle-class
women
strongly
advocated
he
inclu-
sion of divorce
rights
n the PersonalStatusCode.As it stands
now,
unless written
into the Shari'a
prenuptial
agreement,
women cannot
easily
initiate divorce
pro-
ceedings.
Poor
women, however,
might
be
adversely
affectedbecause
marriage
or
them,
even
a
miserable
one,
constitutedsocial and economic
stability;
extending
the
civil
right
to
divorce
to women
may
be the
signal
for which
many
men are wait-
ing
to
escape
social
pressure
anddivorce
heirwives
with
no
guarantees
f
security.
Finally,
also
at
issue
are
questions
acing
women's
movements
worldwide:with
what social
sectors,
groups,
and
movements
Palestinian
eminists
will
coalesce,
and what the
commonalities
for alliance
building
are.
Giacaman,
for
example,
stressedthatthe women'smovementhadto build allianceswith otherconstituen-
cies,
such as
the disabled.
Both
sectors,
according
o
her,
were
"weak,"
while "their
demands
of social
integration
were similar."
Another
eminist
professor
suggested
that
women
must
ally
themselves
only
with "secular orces"
andunderlined
he im-
portance
of
adopting
new
tactics,
such as
lobbying
and
advocacy.
Almost
every
ac-
tivist
I
interviewed
drew a
strong
connection
between
the women's
movement
and
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 22/26
Abdulhadi /
PALESTINIAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT
669
other
challenging
groupsdemanding
greater
democratizationn
Palestinian
politi-
cal affairs.
The
changes
in the
structure
f
politicalopportunity,
uch
as the
Israel-PLO
Ac-
cord of
1993,
radically
altered
genderdynamics
and
produced
new
forms of Pales-
tinian women's
activism.
On one
hand,
the
autonomy
of the
Palestinianwomen's
movement
was threatened
y
the Palestinian
National
Authority's
attempt
o
usurp
independent
women's
action.
On the
other
hand,
the
emergence
of the
Palestinian
National
Authority
mposed
certainconstraints
n
Palestinian
women,
producing
a
sense
of
urgency
and
focusing
much
of feminist activism on
advocacy,
egislation,
and coalition
building.
CONCLUSION-UNDERSTANDING
SOCIAL
ACTION
The Palestinian
women's autonomousmovement
emerged
n
the
early
1990s as
a result of
both favorable
general
conditions,
as
well
as
specific
moments,
that
ed
Palestinian
women to
begin
addressing
heirsituationwithin the context of
gender
hierarchy.
Women's
organizing
was located on a feminist
continuum,
shifting,
evolving,
and
shaped
by
their
relationships
o
their
sociopolitical
and
cultural
con-
text.
Thus,
the article
s informed
by
and
supports
he
feminist
"paradigm
f differ-
ence"
that
recognizes
the
diversity
n women's
experiences
andvalues the
richness
of the
multiplicity
of
women's voices andactions.This theoretical
notion
rejects
at-
tempts
to
homogenize
women,
to erase
differencesbetween
them,
and to
forcibly
fit
their
struggles
nto one model of liberation.The case of
Palestinianwomen
dem-
onstrates hat different
groups
of
women
live different
experiences
and
wage
their
struggles
for
emancipation
according
o
their
locations
and needs. A
topology
of
gender
and social
movements-neither
linear
nor
flat-warrants a
vision that akes
all these
complexities
into consideration.Such a vision
clearly
requires
an under-
standing
of
the interconnectedness f
gender,
sexual, cultural, ocioeconomic,
and
national
oppression.
Interconnectednessn social movement
analysis
entails
seeing
the links
between
the
political
context in which a
movement
emerges,
the
historical
continuity
of so-
cial
action,
and the
necessary
conditionswithoutwhich an
action fails
to
material-
ize into a
movement.Social movementsdo not sustain
hemselves
without
organi-
zations. Protest
may
coalesce
in
response
to a
particular
ncident,
such
as the
imposition
of the
Hijab
on Palestinian
women
n
Gaza
during
he
second
year
of the
Intifada.
However,
had
there
been no
organizing
tructure uch
as the various
Pales-
tinian women's
committees
and
voluntary
association,
and an
organizing
mecha-
nism, such as theHWC,or theGUPW, he Palestinianwomen's movementwould
not have sustained tself. In
addition,
Palestinianwomen's
organizational
models
and
practiced
forms of collective action
did not
emerge
along
with their
autono-
mous
movement;
Palestinianwomen's
organizations
xisted as
early
as
1929,
thus
lending
support
o the notion
of social
movement
continuity.
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 23/26
670 GENDER & SOCIETY / December
1998
I
attempted
to
highlight
the
complexities surrounding
the
emergent
Palestinian
women's autonomous movement, as well as its dynamics. The historical roots of
this
movement were characterized
by
an
interplay
of societal
patriarchy,
Israeli
practices,
and nationalist discourses.
The
Intifada,
initially
raising
the
expectations
of Palestinian
women,
was also the
context
in which their
grievances
mounted.
However,
changing
international,
regional,
and
local
conditions intervened at dif-
ferent
stages
to
open
windows
of
opportunities
for Palestinian
women to resist the
multiple oppressions
to which
they
were
subjected.
Their
deployment
of
ideologi-
cal
concepts
such as
perestroika
and
glasnost,
as well
as
their
networking
with other
women's movements
around the
globe,
were the two
immediate
opportunities
seized
by
Palestinian women to launch their movement.
The
changing political
context,
such as the
Israel-PLO Accord and the
emergence
of
the Palestinian Na-
tional
Authority, shaped gender
dynamics
in different
ways.
The
emphasis
in Pales-
tinian feminist discourses
and
actions shifted
away
from resistance to the
occupa-
tion and
grassroots
activism
(during
the
Intifada),
competing
views on feminism
and
gender
awareness
work
(in
the
early
1990s)
toward
legislating
laws,
advocacy,
lobbying,
and coalition
building.
The
emergence
of the Palestinian women's
autonomous
movement,
as well
as its
timing,
can be
explained,
then,
if
we
expand
our
understanding
of the
"political
opportunity"
both to
account for
developments
that take
place
beyond
the narrow
confines of
a
single
state and to
seriously analyze
the
ways
in which
gender
relations and
dynamics shape
and
influence the structure
of
political
opportunity
and
how the
political
context,
in
turn,
shapes
and influences
gender
relations and
dynamics.
The rise of Palestinian
women's collective
action at
the lowest
ebb
of
the
Palestinian
national
movement
points
to
the
salience
of
gender
in
shaping
political
opportunity.
NOTES
1. I refer
to the
sample
survey
of
22,000
Palestinians n
2,500
householdsconducted
n
Gaza,
West
Bank,
and
Arab
Jerusalem,
which
was
published
n
Heiberg,
Ovensen,
et al.
(1993).
The
survey
contains
one million
pieces
of data
and
was collected n
a
period
of
threemonths
June
1992-August
1992)
by
100
field-workers.
2. Yuval-Davis
and
Anthias
"locate
ive
major although
not
exclusive)
ways
in which
women tend
to
participate
n ethnic and
national
processes"
1989,
8):
as
biological reproducers,
eproducers
f eth-
nic/national
boundaries,
deological
reproducers
f the
collectivity
and
as
cultural
ransmitters,
s
signi-
fiers
of ethnic/national
difference,
and
as
participants
n
national,
economic,
political,
and
military
struggles.
I have found
that Palestinianwomen
do, indeed,
participate
n all these
processes.
However,
the
images
that
were
increasingly
recurring
n nationaldiscourses
and
consistently
cited
by
the
women I
interviewed
were
the three
I have
outlinedhere.
3. Women's
committeeswere formed
by
female cadres rom hefour
major
political
groups-Fatah,
Popular
Front
or the Liberation
of
Palestine,
Democratic
Front
or
the Liberation f
Palestine,
and
the
Palestine
People's
Party-that
enjoyed
broad
support
n the
Occupied
Territories.
Seeking
to involve
women
in social
and national
struggles,
activists
recruited
and mobilized
women
for
political
groups,
while
simultaneously
providing
women from
conservative
backgrounds
with safe
spaces
(Scott
1990)
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 24/26
Abdulhadi / PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT 671
where
they
became
politically
and
socially
activewithout
dealing
with
mixed-gendergroups,
deemed
socially
unacceptable
by
the
conservatives.
4. Israeli eminist and
peace
activistSimona Sharoni
uggests
thatanalmost
equal
numberof Israeli
Jewish women were
killed that
same
year by
their
boyfriends
or
husbands.Sharoni
attributes iolence
against
women to the
extrememilitarization f
Israeli
society.
She further
uggests
thatbecause
Israeli
soldiers
who
served
n the
occupied
Palestinian
reaswere not
penalized
or
very
slightly penalized)
for
violating
Palestinian
ights,
t was
impossible
for them
not to extendthis
violence to
Israeliwomen
once
they
came back home and took
off
their
military
uniforms
1995,120-21).
5.
No women were seen
on
the White House
lawn,
which left
many
wonderingwhy
former
Palestin-
ian
spokeswoman,
Hanan
Ashrawi,
n
particular,
was
not there.The
gendered
anguage
surrounding
he
agreement
was,
perhaps,
best
revealed
n
The
New York
Times
on
September
5,
1993. Under he
heading,
"Mideast
Accord:
Behind the
Secrets,
Other
Secrets,"
The New York
imes wrote:
During
he
discussions,
aformof verbalshorthand
eveloped
n which
people
ike
Mr.
Peres
and
Mr.
Holst
were called the
fathers,
top
leaders ike Mr. Rabinand Mr.
Arafat
became the
godfa-
thers,
and
officials at Mr.
Beilin's level were the sons
[emphasis
added].
REFERENCES
Abdo,
N.
1991. Women n the
Intifada:
Gender,
lass
and national iberation.
Race
and Class 32
(April-
June):
19-34.
Abu
Ali,
K.
1974. Introductions
o
the
reality
of
womenand
experiences
n the
Palestinian
revolution.
Beirut:GeneralUnion of PalestinianWomen.
Al-Khalili,
G.
1977.
The Palestinian
womenand the
revolution.
Acre,
Israel:Dar
al-Aswar.
Anderson,
B. 1991.
Imagined
communities:
Reflections
on the
origin
and
spread
of
nationalism.
Lon-
don:
Verso.
Buechler,
S. 1990.
Women'smovement n the
U.S. New
Brunswick,
NJ:
Rutgers
University
Press.
Cagatay,
N.,
C.
Grown,
and
A.
Santiago.
1986.
The Nairobiwomen's
conference:Toward
global
femi-
nism?
FeministStudies 12: 401-12.
El-Fanar.1991.
Palestinian
eminist
organization'sreport.
Haifa,
Israel:
El-Fanar.
Fanon,
F. 1963.
The wretched
of
the
earth. New
York:
Grove
Weidenfeld.
.
1965. A
dying
colonialism.
New
York:
Monthly
Review Press.
Flax,
J.
1990.
Thinking
ragments:Psychoanalysis, eminism,
and
postmodernism
n the
contemporary
West.Berkeley:Universityof Califomia Press.
Freedman,
M.
1990. Exile in
the
promised
and.
Ithaca,
NY:
Firebrand
Books.
Gamson,W.,
and
D.
Meyer.
1996.
Framingpolitical
opportunity.
n
Comparative
erspectives
on
social
movements,
dited
by
D.
McAdam,
J.
McCarthy,
ndM.
Zald.
Cambridge,
UK:
Cambridge
Univer-
sity
Press.
GuardianCollective.
1977. Our roots
are still alive. New
York:The
Guardian.
Hadawi,
S.
1989. Bitter harvest:
A
modern
history
of
Palestine.
New
York:Olive
Branch
Press.
Hadi,
R.
1992. The feminist
behind
the
spokeswoman:
Exclusive
interview
with Hanan
Ashrawi. MS:
The
World
of
Women
2
(March/April):
14-17.
Hammami,
R.
1990.
Women,
he
Hijab
and he
Intifada.
Middle
EastReport
0
(May-August):
4-28,78.
.
1991.
Women's
politicalparticipation
n the
Intifada:A
critical
overview.
In
The
Intifada
and
some women'ssocial issues, editedby the Women'sStudiesCommittee.Ramallah,Israel:Bisan
Center for Research
and
Development.
Hart,
A. 1984.
Arafat:
A
political
biography.Bloomington:
Indiana
University
Press.
Heiberg,
M.,
G.
Ovensen,
H.
Brunborg,
R.
Giacaman,
R.
Hammami,
N.
Hawkins,
H.
Abu
Libdeh,
C.
Stoltenberg,
S.
Tamari,
S.
Tamsfoss,
0.
F.
Ugland,
and L.
Weiseth,
eds.
1993.
Palestinian
society
in
Gaza,
West
Bank and Arab
Jerusalem.Oslo:
FAFO.
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 25/26
672 GENDER
&
SOCIETY
/
December
1998
Hill
Collins,
P.
1990.
Blackfeminist
hought:
Knowledge,
consciousness,
and the
politics of
empower-
ment. Boston: Unwin
Hyman.
hooks,
bell. 1981.Ain'tI a woman: Black women
andfeminism.
Boston: South End.
Jayawardena,
K. 1986. Feminismand nationalism
n the ThirdWorld.London:Zed
Books.
Kanafani,
G. 1974.
The
1936-1939 revolt
n
Palestine:
Background,
etails,
and
analysis.
Beirut,
Leba-
non: The
Popular
Front
for
the Liberationof
Palestine,
Department
f Central
nformation.
Katzenstein,M.,
and C. Mueller.
1987. The
Women'smovements
of
the
United
States and
Western
Europe.
Philadelphia:TempleUniversity
Press.
Kazi,
H. 1987. Palestinian
women and the national
liberation
movement: A social
perspective.
In
Women n
the Middle
East,
edited
by
Khamsin.London:Zed Books.
Khaled,
L. 1973.
Mypeople
shall
live:
The
autobiography
f
a
revolutionary.
dited
by
George
Hajiar.
London:
Hodderand
Stoughton.
McAdam,
D.
1982. The
politicalprocess
and the
development f
Black
nsurgency.
Chicago:University
of
Chicago
Press.
---
. 1996.
Conceptual
origins,
current
roblems,
uturedirections.
n
Comparative erspectives
on
social
movements,
dited
by
D.
McAdams,
J.
McCarthy,
nd M.
Zald.
Cambridge,
UK:
Cambridge
University
Press.
McAdam, D.,
J.
McCarthy,
nd M. Zald.
1996.
Comparative
erspectives
on
social movements.
Cam-
bridge,
UK:
CambridgeUniversity
Press.
Meir,
G. 1975.
My
life.
New
York:
Dell.
Meyer,
D. 1993.
A winter
of
discontent.
New York:
Praeger.
Meyer,
D.,
and
N. Whittier.
1995. Social movement
spillover.
In Social
movements:
Readings
on their
emergence,
mobilization,
and
dynamics,
edited
by
D.
McAdam and
D. Snow. Los
Angeles:
Rox-
bury.
Minh-ha,
T. 1989.
Woman, ative,
other.
Bloomington:
Indiana
University
Press.
Mohanty,
C.,
A.
Russo,
and
L. Torres.1991. Third
Worldwomenand the
politics
offeminism.
Blooming-
ton:Indiana
University
Press.
Najjar,
0. 1992. Portraits
of
Palestinianwomen. Salt
Lake
City:University
of
Utah
Press.
The
New York
Times. 1993.
Mideast Accord:Behind the
Secrets,
OtherSecrets.
5
September.
Peteet,
J. 1991.
Gender n crisis:
Women nd the Palestinian
esistance
movement.
New
York:
Columbia
University
Press.
Rupp,
L.,
and
V.
Taylor.
1987.
Survival n
the
doldrums:
TheAmerican
woman's
rights
movement,
1945
to the 1960s.
New York:
Oxford
University
Press.
Scott,
J.
1990.
Domination
and the arts
of
resistance:Hidden
ranscripts.
New
Haven,
CT:Yale Univer-
sity
Press.
Sharoni,
S. 1995. Gender
and
the
Israeli-Palestinian
onflict:
The
politicsof
women's resistance.
Syra-
cuse,
NY:
Syracuse
University
Press.
Snow,
D.,
E.
Rochford,
S.
Worden,
and
R.
Benford,
R.
1986.
Frame
alignmentprocesses,
micromobili-
zation,
and
movement
participation.
American
Sociological
Review51:464-81.
Staggenborg,
S. 1991.
The
pro-choice
movement.New
York:Oxford
University
Press.
Strauss,
A.,
and J. Corbin.
1990.
Basics
of qualitative
research:
Grounded
heoryprocedures
and
tech-
niques.
Newbury
Park,
CA:
Sage.
Strum,
P. 1992. The
women
are
marching:
The
second
sex and the
Palestinian
revolution.
Chicago:
Law-
rence
Hill Books.
Swidler,
A.
1986.
Culture
n
action:
Symbols
and
strategies.
American
Sociological
Review51:273-86.
Tarrow,
.
1994.
Power n
movement: ocial
movements,
ollective
action and
politics.
Cambridge,
UK:
Cambridge
University
Press.
.
1996. States
and
opportunities:
he
politicalstructuring
f social
movements.
In
Comparative
perspectives
on social
movements:
Political
opportunities,
mobilizing
tructures,
nd
culturalfram-
ings,
edited
by
D.
McAdam,
J.
McCarthy,
nd
M. Zald.
Cambridge,
UK:
Cambridge
University
Press.
Taylor,
V. 1989. Social
movement
continuity.
American
Sociological
Review 54:761-75.
8/11/2019 Abdulhadi, Rabab (1998) _The Palestinian Women's Autonomous Movement - Emergdence, Dynamics, And Challe…
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/abdulhadi-rabab-1998-the-palestinian-womens-autonomous-movement- 26/26
Abdulhadi
/
PALESTINIAN
WOMEN'S
MOVEMENT 673
Taylor,
V.,
andL.
Rupp.
1993.
Women's
culture
and esbian
feministactivism:A
reconsideration f cul-
turalfeminism.
Signs:
Journal
of
Women n Cultureand
Society
19:32-61.
Taylor,
V.,
and N. Whittier.1992. Collective
identity
n
social movementcommunities.
In
Frontiers n
social movement
heory,
dited
by
A. MorrisandC.
Mueller.
New
Haven,
CT:Yale
University
Press.
Thornhill,
T. 1992.
Making
women talk:
The
interrogation
f
Palestinian
women.
London:
Lawyers
for
PalestinianHuman
Rights.
Tilly,
C.
1978.
From
mobilization
o
revolution.
Reading,
MA:
Addison-Wesley.
Warnock,
K. 1990.
Land
before
honor:
Palestinian women
in
the
Occupied
Territories.New York:
Monthly
Review Press.
Whittier,
N. 1995. Feminist
generations:
The
persistence
of
the radical women's
movement.
Philadel-
phia: Temple University
Press.
Women'sTask
Force.
1991.
Women's
agenda
for the West Bank
and
Gaza
Strip:
Initial
plan
of
action.
Ramallah,
Israel:
United Nations
Development
Program.
Yuval-Davis,N.,
and F. Anthias. 1989.
Woman-nation-state.
ondon:
Macmillan.
RababAbdulhadi
s
a
doctoralcandidate n
sociology
at
Yale
University.
Her
dissertationexam-
ines the
construction,contestation,
and
transformation
f
Palestiniannational
identity.
Her re-
search interests nclude
gender
and
generation,
nationalism
and women's
activism,
and
collec-
tive
identity
and
social
change.
More
recently,
he was
a
United
Nations
Development
Program
(UNDP)
consultant to the Women's
tudies
Program
at Bir
Zeit
University,
Palestine. She
is a
formerjournalist
and a coeditor
of
Mobilizing Democracy:
Changing
US
Policy
in the
Middle
East
(1991).
top related