I Saw it in Palestine

Palestinian Women’s Resistance in Rural Palestine: A Call for Stories

Many western academics write about Palestinian women as though all Palestinian women are middle class and urban. Rural Palestinian women and women’s resistance outside of the intifadas are mostly ignored in the academic and popular literature about Palestine. If you have a story of women’s resistance to occupation and/or patriarchy in rural Palestine, consider writing it down and sending it to me. I will be using these stories as research for a paper on rural Palestinian women’s resistance and resilience and as background for my master’s degree thesis on women’s resistance in the village of At-Tuwani. I will not publish your story without your permission and I will send you a copy of anything that I write based on your material. I welcome your thoughts and feedback on my research and writing.

About me:

I am a Women’s and Gender Studies master’s degree student at DePaul University. From 2007-2010, I worked to support Palestinian nonviolent resistance in the village of At-Tuwani. At-Tuwani is a small, farming village located south of Al Khalil (Hebron) facing violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers. I currently continue to work closely with the At-Tuwani women’s cooperative and in the Palestine solidarity movement through Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago and the Chicago Movement for Palestinian Rights.

I became interested in soliciting stories about Palestinian women’s resistance in rural Palestine after my research showed that the voices and perspectives of rural Palestinian women are almost completely absent from academic literature and reporting on Palestine. Many of the articles I have read about Palestinian women’s resistance do not reflect my experiences and observations from living in rural Palestine or the concerns voiced by my Palestinian friends and colleagues in At-Tuwani.

More information about me and my work is available at my blog http://inpalestine.blogspot.com. Please feel free to email me any questions you have about this project.

How to submit your stories:

To submit your stories, send me an email at jubilus@gmail.com. Please include the location of the story and when it took place. All stories about women’s resistance to occupation and/or patriarchy are welcome. I define resistance broadly and believe that for Palestinian women ‘to exist is to resist.’ Once again, I will not publish or distribute your stories without your permission and I will send you a copy of anything I write. Please include your name and contact information with your submission so that I can be in touch with you.

For my current research, I need stories by March 5^th. However, I will continue to be researching this topic through May 2013 and welcome stories at any time.

Thank you so much for your help with my research and your work for a free Palestine.

Sincerely,

Joy