ABSTRACT
The women interviewed for this book expressed the sense of being shouldered with a growing burden of responsibility in the household that limited their choices and actions. This can be linked to the growing insecurity experienced by Palestinian households in the face of deteriorating living conditions, and to the historically central role Palestinian women have played as ‘shock absorbers’ during crises. In recent times, the violence of everyday life under occupation has created a situation of deepening crisis that has strained the capacity women once had to play this role. As such, they have had little defence against the gendered effects of worsening fragmentation, dispossession, resource scarcity, violence, insecurity, and economic and humanitarian crisis, all of which have continued to raise the barriers to their participation in overt resistance ever higher. These challenges have been exacerbated by the growing crisis facing Palestinian families and patriarchal norms circumscribing women’s mobility and behaviour, making decisions surrounding resistance even more fraught. As a result, Palestinian women are highly sensitive to the perceived legitimacy of particular actions, since involvement in an action considered ‘illegitimate’ would subject their moral characters and social reputations to a high level of scrutiny and disapproval. This analysis – which shows women to be highly cautious and selective in considering resistance tactics – reveals the nuances involved in women’s relationship to collective activism, in stark contrast to the agency-stripping charge of pervasive apathy. It reflects both women’s perception that their status in society has weakened, as well as their disillusionment with traditional forms of political activism. While Palestinian women activists have always risked social censure when transgressing prevailing norms of female behaviour, the increasing view within Palestinian society that political involvement results in moral and political corruption has amplified this risk.
