Gender, sexuality, and class in national narrations: Palestinian camp women tell their lives

Frontiers

Volumn 19, Issue 2, 1998, Pages 166-185

  Sayigh, Rosemary ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0040005598     PISSN: 01609009     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3347164     Document Type: Article

References (42)

1. Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, eds., Woman-Nation-State (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989); Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990); and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question," in Sangari and Vaid, Recasting Women, 233-53.
2. Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, eds., Woman-Nation-State (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989); Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990); and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question," in Sangari and Vaid, Recasting Women, 233-53.
3. Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, eds., Woman-Nation-State (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989); Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990); and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question," in Sangari and Vaid, Recasting Women, 233-53.
4. Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias, eds., Woman-Nation-State (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989); Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid, eds., Recasting Women: Essays in Indian Colonial History (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990); and Partha Chatterjee, "The Nationalist Resolution of the Women's Question," in Sangari and Vaid, Recasting Women, 233-53.
5. R. Radhakrishnan, "Nationalism, Gender, and the Narrative of Identity," in Nationalisms and Sexualities, ed. Andrew Parker et al. (New York: Routledge, 1992), 77-95.
6. Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (London: Zed Books, 1986), 36-53. Chatterjee borrows from existentialism the terms "problematic" and "thematic" to designate two fundamental elements of anticolonialist nationalisms. The "problematic" is that part of nationalist ideology that asserts the possibility of autonomy, while the "thematic" is its moral/epistemological framework.
7. Radhakrishnan, "Nationalism, Gender, and the Narrative of Identity," 85.
8. Quoted by Mary Layoun in "Telling Spaces: Palestinian Women and the Engendering of National Narratives," in Parker et al., Nationalisms and Sexualities, 406-23.
9. Sources on the Palestinian women's movement include Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Herbert Joseph, 1937); Khadija Abu Ali, Introduction to Women's Reality and Her Experience in the Palestinian Revolution (Arabic) (Beirut: General Union of Palestinian Women, 1975); Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Orayb Aref Najjar, Portraits of Palestinian Women (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992); and Ellen Fleischmann, "The Nation and its 'New Women: Feminism, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1996).
10. Sources on the Palestinian women's movement include Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Herbert Joseph, 1937); Khadija Abu Ali, Introduction to Women's Reality and Her Experience in the Palestinian Revolution (Arabic) (Beirut: General Union of Palestinian Women, 1975); Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Orayb Aref Najjar, Portraits of Palestinian Women (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992); and Ellen Fleischmann, "The Nation and its 'New Women: Feminism, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1996).
11. Sources on the Palestinian women's movement include Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Herbert Joseph, 1937); Khadija Abu Ali, Introduction to Women's Reality and Her Experience in the Palestinian Revolution (Arabic) (Beirut: General Union of Palestinian Women, 1975); Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Orayb Aref Najjar, Portraits of Palestinian Women (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992); and Ellen Fleischmann, "The Nation and its 'New Women: Feminism, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1996).
12. Sources on the Palestinian women's movement include Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Herbert Joseph, 1937); Khadija Abu Ali, Introduction to Women's Reality and Her Experience in the Palestinian Revolution (Arabic) (Beirut: General Union of Palestinian Women, 1975); Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Orayb Aref Najjar, Portraits of Palestinian Women (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992); and Ellen Fleischmann, "The Nation and its 'New Women: Feminism, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1996).
13. Sources on the Palestinian women's movement include Matiel Mogannam, The Arab Woman and the Palestine Problem (London: Herbert Joseph, 1937); Khadija Abu Ali, Introduction to Women's Reality and Her Experience in the Palestinian Revolution (Arabic) (Beirut: General Union of Palestinian Women, 1975); Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991); Orayb Aref Najjar, Portraits of Palestinian Women (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992); and Ellen Fleischmann, "The Nation and its 'New Women: Feminism, Nationalism, Colonialism, and the Palestinian Women's Movement, 1920-1948" (Ph.D. diss., Georgetown University, 1996).
14. For Palestinian history in Lebanon, see Helena Cobban, The Palestine Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990); and Rosemary Sayigh, Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (London: Zed Books, 1994).
15. For Palestinian history in Lebanon, see Helena Cobban, The Palestine Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990); and Rosemary Sayigh, Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (London: Zed Books, 1994).
16. For Palestinian history in Lebanon, see Helena Cobban, The Palestine Liberation Organisation: People, Power, and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984); Rex Brynen, Sanctuary and Survival: The PLO in Lebanon (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1990); and Rosemary Sayigh, Too Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (London: Zed Books, 1994).
17. Proverbs in use among camp people, such as, "She should not show as much as the tip of her tooth" (that is, not laugh or talk too much), illustrate the disciplining of girls' bodies. Note also later in this paper the remark of Umm Ghassan that a girl should know what is forbidden (haram) without anyone telling her and Dalal's remark that her mother told them warning stories of girls whose families killed them because they were "bad."
18. Samira Salal, a leading cadre in the Resistance and Palestinian Women's Union, interview, March 1992, Beirut.
19. The life stories were recorded as part of a doctoral dissertation: "Palestinian Camp Women's Narratives of Exile: Self, Gender, National Crisis" (Ph.D. diss., The University of Hull, 1994).
20. For a political critique of life stories, see Daphne Patai, "Ethical Problems of Personal Narratives, or, Who Should Eat the Last Piece of Cake?" International Journal of Oral History 8:1 (1987): 5-27; Dorinne K. Kondo critiques the "I" concept as Eurocentric in Grafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japenese Workplace (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 3-33; see also Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 31. Lourdes Torres takes a different view in "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies," in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra T. Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 271-87.
21. For a political critique of life stories, see Daphne Patai, "Ethical Problems of Personal Narratives, or, Who Should Eat the Last Piece of Cake?" International Journal of Oral History 8:1 (1987): 5-27; Dorinne K. Kondo critiques the "I" concept as Eurocentric in Grafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japenese Workplace (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 3-33; see also Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 31. Lourdes Torres takes a different view in "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies," in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra T. Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 271-87.
22. For a political critique of life stories, see Daphne Patai, "Ethical Problems of Personal Narratives, or, Who Should Eat the Last Piece of Cake?" International Journal of Oral History 8:1 (1987): 5-27; Dorinne K. Kondo critiques the "I" concept as Eurocentric in Grafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japenese Workplace (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 3-33; see also Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 31. Lourdes Torres takes a different view in "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies," in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra T. Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 271-87.
23. For a political critique of life stories, see Daphne Patai, "Ethical Problems of Personal Narratives, or, Who Should Eat the Last Piece of Cake?" International Journal of Oral History 8:1 (1987): 5-27; Dorinne K. Kondo critiques the "I" concept as Eurocentric in Grafting Selves: Power, Gender, and Discourses of Identity in a Japenese Workplace (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), 3-33; see also Lila Abu-Lughod, Writing Women's Worlds: Bedouin Stories (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 31. Lourdes Torres takes a different view in "The Construction of the Self in U.S. Latina Autobiographies," in Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism, ed. Chandra T. Mohanty, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 271-87.
24. See Luisa Passerini, Fascism in Popular Memory: The Cultural Experience of the Turin Working Class, trans. Robert Lumley and Jude Bloomfield (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 17-63.
25. V. Spike Peterson makes the connection in "Reframing the Politics of Identity: Democracy, Globalisation, and Gender," Political Expressions 1:1 (1995): 1-16.
26. Jo Stanley, "Including the Feelings: Personal Political Testimony and Self-Disclosure," Oral History 24:1 (1996): 60-67.
27. See Daphne Patai, "U.S. Academics and Third World Women: Is Ethical Research Possible?" in Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, ed. Sherna B. Gluck and Daphne Patai (New York: Routledge, 1991). Also see, Rosemary Sayigh, "Researching Gender in a Palestinian Camp: Political, Theoretical, and Methodological Problems," in Gendering the Middle East, ed. Deniz Kandiyoti (London: J. B. Tauris, 1996).
28. See Daphne Patai, "U.S. Academics and Third World Women: Is Ethical Research Possible?" in Women's Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History, ed. Sherna B. Gluck and Daphne Patai (New York: Routledge, 1991). Also see, Rosemary Sayigh, "Researching Gender in a Palestinian Camp: Political, Theoretical, and Methodological Problems," in Gendering the Middle East, ed. Deniz Kandiyoti (London: J. B. Tauris, 1996).
29. Eight were married, six were widows (of whom two were in the youngest age group), three were single, and one was divorced. Ten of the speakers were or had been employed full-time (four with the PLO or Resistance), five had done casual waged labor or worked in a family shop, and three had apparently never worked for money. Fourteen were of village origin, four from cities. Eight lived in family-owned or rented homes outside the camp, six had rights to shelter in Shateela, and four were currently homeless.
30. Most of the life storytellers suppressed all sexual references and this was particularly marked in the case of older women. But two younger women, both cadre members, also omitted personal details such as marriage and divorce.
31. Most of the life storytellers had faced crisis in the period leading up to recording, and the crisis may have been particularly severe in two of the three cases presented here. My status as an in-marrying foreign woman possibly encouraged confessions and critiques that would not have been made to a community member, a complete outsider, or a male researcher. My age definitely helped since women past menopause in Palestinian communities are liberated from many suspicions and constraints.
32. In non-Westernized Arab communities women are usually called "Mother-of-(name of eldest son)." All the names used in this paper are fictional. To protect the speakers, I have been sparing with details that might identify them.
33. It is unusual for Arab women to use the masculine pronoun in relation to "getting children." Umm Ghassan clearly does so to underline her husband's irresponsibility in producing more children than he could provide for.
34. On widows' struggles to avoid this fate, see Hilma Granqvist, Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village (Helsinki: Societas Scientiarum Fennica, 1935).
35. When I asked others about such discrimination in grandparental households some interlocateurs denied it, but one young Palestinian woman said that this had indeed been her own experience.
36. The mu'akhar is the part of the marriage settlement held back in case of divorce.
37. In the 1986 interview Dalal had said, "I've been in the [Resistance] nearly twelve years, a long experience. I feel now that I can't leave, I have tied my future to this march."
38. The 'alameh here refers to the gold "set" composed of necklace and earrings that marks a formal engagement. Etymologically related to 'alam (news), it is also used as a marriage announcement.
39. The Resistance groups are said to have discouraged marriage outside the group. Such objections were more forcefully expressed in regard to women than to men members.
40. The full text is: "Everyone who sees me coming and going, wearing normal clothes, would think I'm liberated and coquettish, whereas deep inside I'm more closed than I appear." Dalal uses the same word munqhalaq (closed, locked) to describe her home in childhood, and her inner personality.
41. This is a difficult political and moral issue, but I take Shula Marks's position that it is the lives of victims of gender systems that tell us most about them. See, "The Context of Personal Narrative: Reflections on 'Not Either an Experimental Doll,'" in Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives, ed. Personal Narratives Group (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989), 39-58.
42. See Peteet, Gender in Crisis, 152-56.