ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a case study of Nablus undertaken by Mokarram Abbas with additional input by Clara Greed to contextualise the study and link it to key themes and religious perspectives raised in the book as a whole. Mokarram investigated the ways in which space was gendered in Nablus and how this affected women’s chances of freely accessing the city. The research investigated whether Western women and planning ideas and concerns were applicable to the Muslim city of Nablus. It was found that the spatial divisions between work and home, created by Western land-use zoning, were not as evident in the ancient, close-knit, high-density, mixed-use layout of the city. Rather than having clear divisions between male and female spaces, instead she found the situation to be complex with different levels and types of division at the local level. In particular small local public parks – mutanazahat – provided women-focused oases from the harassment women encountered in the ‘public’ male-dominated areas. Mokarram found that women prefer their own separate spaces, and the Western idea of the complete mixing of males and females in urban public spaces and facilities was unwelcome, as this could actually reduce women’s safety and freedom.
