ABSTRACT
Like other women living under conditions of colonial occupation and/or within the context of national resistance movements, Palestinian women have faced a complex web of violence in which conditions in the home, including domestic violence, are directly affected (usually exacerbated) by extraordinary levels of political, military, and economic violence in the public sphere (Taraki, 2006). As a result, those seeking to address the effects of violence on women's lives face complex questions. How can women demand for themselves rights and protections that are currently denied all Palestinians, including men? How does one honestly and adequately speak about the violence Palestinian women face when the discourses surrounding that violence are prone to appropriation within Orientalist interpretations of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim cultures and societies? What about women's participation in violence, either through participation in resistance, or through active support of patriarchal structures that contribute to domestic violence?
