[Back to Inside]

By Amy Geiszler-Jones

Palestinian feminists find themselves in a position that no other women’s movement has faced in history, says a feminist anthropologist who spent the past year living and doing research in the West Bank.

While the women’s movements in South Africa and Ireland have some parallels in that "feminism has emerged from and within anti-colonial nationalist struggles," the Palestinian women’s movement has additional issues to overcome, says Debbie Gordon, associate professor of women’s studies at WSU.

A major factor is that Palestinians in general are involved in state-building activities, such as creating an infrastructure system, but have no state, she says.

Even with the latest peace accord, under which about 160 square miles of the West Bank were transferred to Palestinian civil rule this month, Palestinians still have no real control of the land, she says. Both Palestinian and Israeli settlements dot the West Bank, and certain cities fall under Palestinian civil rule while in others, like Jerusalem, Palestinians have limited access.

Debbie Gordon

"This became a focal point of my research," Gordon says. "What does feminism look like in a situation where everybody is involved in state-building activities, including building a body of laws, but there is no state. This is an essential dilemma that affects everybody, and feminism can’t be separated out from the political context. If you don’t have a state, who do you make your demands to?"

Palestinian feminists are also grappling with their role following a 1993 peace agreement referred to as the Oslo accords.

The accords brought about changes in the way women’s groups were organized. Once popular committees associated with and funded by the Palestine Liberation Organization, formal women’s groups are now non-government groups. That change in status also brought a change in funding and a questioning of what the priorities of these groups should be.

During the 1970s and 1980s, when Palestinians were under Israeli occupation, women’s groups provided a number of social services, such as education and health care.

"In the past, the women’s movement was also involved with issues like demanding the release of prisoners and in the struggle to resist land confiscation," Gordon says. Such efforts, even though many Palestinians remain imprisoned in Israeli jails, are now seen as anti-peace.

"It becomes a question of what is made a priority, the national issues or the social issues," she says. "In fact, both are priorities."

Gordon became "fully immersed" in the culture during her yearlong sabbatical, learning to speak Arabic during a summer course at Birzeit University and settling in Ramallah, a major urban center of the West Bank under Palestinian civil control. A former WSU math student who now teaches at Birzeit helped make initial arrangements for her stay.

Gordon visited with a number of women’s groups, human right’s groups and members of the civilian Palestinian National Authority.