Palestinian Women’s Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism (Gender, Culture, and Politics in the Middle East)

Jad traces the transformation of the Palestinian women's movement from the 1930s to the post-Oslo period and through the Second Intifada to examine the often-fraught relationship between women and nationalism in Palestine. Offering one of the first intensive studies of Islamist women's activism, Jad also explores the impact of emerging feminist NGOs in depoliticizing the secular Palestinian women's movement. Studying these two developments together illuminates the nature of women's engagement in the Palestinian space, challenging myths of gender roles' "immutability" under Islam and the supposed "modernizing" benefits of Western-style activism. "The political and public life of Palestinian women has been influenced by a number of factors, most importantly successive waves of occupation of Palestine by various forms of colonization; the evolution and growth of the Palestinian national resistance movement; development of the national movement (later the Palestinian Authority); and the evolution and growth of the feminist movement. This book analyses the structural and ideological transformations of the contemporary Palestinian women's movements in the aftermath of the signing of the Oslo Agreement in 1993 between Israel and the PLO. Based on in-depth interviews with male and female activists and members of different organisations, I provide an analytical overview of the evolution and current configuration of the contemporary women's movements. A detailed analysis of the discourses and structures of the mass-based organisation (PFWAC), the women's NGO (WCLAC) and the women's division of Hamas (studied for the first time) is presented" (ed.) Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Preface 10 Acronyms 18 1. Uprooted Nation, Stateless Nationalism: Palestinian Women’s Activism in Context 22 2. The Conundrums of Post-Oslo Palestine: From Militants to Citizens without Citizenship 47 3. Between Faith and Feminism: Islamist Women of Hamas 92 4. The “New Islamic Woman”: Gender Discourse and Islamist Politics 128 5. Conclusions: Islamists and the Forgingof a Common Ground between Women 177 Epilogue: The Political Life of Palestinian Women since 2004 191 Appendix A. Chronology of Palestinian Women’s Organizations 210 Appendix B. List of Interviews by Organization 214 Glossary 218 References 222 Index 270 About the Author 282