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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 .

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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



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;



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.



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;



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.



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-



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



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,



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."



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



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



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



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."



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-



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



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."



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



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-



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



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.



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)



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].

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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).

abdulhadi, rabab (1998) _the palestinian women's autonomous movement - emergdence, dynamics,...

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