The Role and Status of Palestininan Women in the Struggle for National Liberation: Static or Dynamic?

Abstract

This thesis argues that the elite and urban women leaders of the Palestinian women's movement neglected to engage rural women and women living in refugee camps as their equals in a women's movement. Further, despite women's active presence in the public sphere, the sphere remained defined in masculine terms. As a result, Palestinian women, as "guests" in the domain of men, were easily pushed out after they had served their purpose in the nationalist crisis. What is remarkable is that even after Palestinian men reclaimed the public sphere, Palestinian women remained politically active in the private sphere. In order to understand how this was possible, we must look more closely at the terms "public sphere" and "private sphere".