Paradoxes of gender/politics: Nationalism, feminism, and modernity in contemporary Palestine

Abstract

This dissertation explores the relationship between nationalism and feminism by focusing on the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action Committees (PFWAC) in the Occupied Territories. The study is based on over 150 interviews conducted in 1989 and 1995 (including 56 longitudinal re-interviews), documents, participant observation, and secondary sources. The dissertation addresses why the DFLP in the territories included a large proportion of women at the leadership and membership levels, concluding that the DFLP's commitment to non-military grassroots mobilization made it particularly attractive to women. DFLP cadres also assumed that Palestinians had to prove they were modern to be worthy of self-determination; women leaders symbolized this modernity. Also addressed is why Palestinian leftist-nationalists were convinced that modernity was a pre-requisite for national self-determination. In part, the answer lies in hegemonic narratives that portrayed Palestinian society as atavistic and uncivilized, and therefore undeserving of self-determination. One Palestinian and Arab response was a self-blame narrative that attributed the loss of Palestine in 1948 and 1967 to backwardness. The dissertation also explores why most Palestinian women were regulated in public space and disenfranchised from the nationalist project during the uprising in the territories. To some extent, the very strength of women's presence in the public sphere threatened the gender order, leading to a systematic reassertion of male power. In addition, in an international context where affairs of state are almost exclusively the concerns of men, de-marginalization required the de-feminization of Palestinian politics. Finally, the dissertation examines whether PFWAC nationalist-feminist mobilization had any long-term effects on the gender consciousness of working-class women. Based on 1989 interviews and 1995 re-interviews, most former PFWAC members demonstrated strong feminist sentiments, largely attributable to PFWAC affiliation, but believed they could not always act on them given social constraints. Thus, while participation in the combined nationalist-feminist PFWAC project led to a feminist consciousness for many women, exploring this consciousness requires disaggregating what subaltern women want from what they are able to accomplish and examining the non-dramatic ways they change their lives.