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Agency and Gender in Gaza: masculinity, femininity and family during the second intifada
01:38:37
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- [00:01]
A
Do like to go on and we'd like to accommodate as many as we possibly can. So I'm very delighted to see so many of you here this evening for Dr. Moana Matar's book talk. Her book, as you know, is titled Agency and Gender in Masculinity, Femininity and Family during the Second Intifada. My name is Sulaim and I'm associate professor at the Gender Institute. I'm very delighted to have been asked to Chairman Amata's talk this evening. Let me set out the running order for the proceedings this evening. So Moanata will talk for about 40, 45 minutes. Between 40 and 45 minutes and then there will be Q and A, and then she will take questions from the floo. I've been asked to please remind you, not that you need any of this reminding, to keep your mobile phones in silent mode. And as I said, she will speak for about till about 10 past 12, 12, 13 past 7, and then we'll open the floor to questions. I'm going to repeat this bit of the information again, but just to say that when you do ask questions, and I hope that many of you here will, could you also, at the same time, state who you are, your name and your affiliation, and also ask questions quite concisely and briefly so that we can get as many questions as we possibly can this evening. Dr. Aytemad Moana, as you know, is a research fellow at the LC's Middle east center. She directs a research project funded by Oxfam which examines women's political participation in five Arab states, including Tunisia. She received her PhD in Development Studies from the University of in 2010. She's originally from the Gaza Strip and she has extensive experience as a gender and development specialist and as an activist in Palestine. And let me also say that this I'm very delighted to also have a copy of her book and I'm going to get it signed at the end of this evening from her, no doubt. And just to say that this, you know, I've begun reading this book and I have to say that it's extremely fascinating and also to have a piece of work which sort of, you know, looks, goes into such ethnographic detail and empirical detail, particularly in a part of the world which is now becoming more and more inaccessible to us. And so I think that it's, I think it's quite an achievement. So without much further ado, I give you Dr. Itamalatimalani.
- [03:06]
B
Thank you very much for coming to listen to my presentation. And I apologize from the beginning that I have my book launch while I'm sick. So if I have coughing while I do the presentation, so give me an excuse and try to be patient. Thank you again and thank you very much to me for reading my book and for finding it fascinating. As you said. Okay, I'm going to use PowerPoint and I still believe that it's not relevant. Using the technology is not relevant to the context and to the text that I have, but maybe it will make my presentation more easier accessible to all of you. My presentation is drawn upon my PhD research analysis and findings, which was revised and published as a book entitled as you see Agency and gender in Gaza Masculinity, Femininity and family during the second intifado the research was done in the period 20072010 and it focuses on the socioeconomic context in Gaza during the second Intifada, particularly the years of of full Israeli siege imposed on Gaza. Although this book gives the focus or the full attention to the humanitarian livelihood situation of Gazan families and its gender impact in the period 2000 2009, its analysis and findings remain extremely relevant to the current situation of insecurity and its gender and non gender socioeconomic economic impact. If it's not the situation getting really worse these days, The research aim or the aim of my research is to understand in what ways do the changing functions of gender for the purpose of family survival, livelihood security affect gender subjectivity and the second aim which I focus my presentation on answering this research question is why do women in Gaza resist the masculine aspects of power that they situationally attain to survive their families and present instead both masculinity and femininity within the symbolic, ideological and moral order of patriarchy and male domination. My book explores the example of Gazan society during the second intifado, particularly in the period 20002009 when the combination of the Israeli military occupation of Gaza and the ensuing collapse of sustainable livelihood resulted in a crisis of masculinity and femininity? The formal the crisis of masculinity caused by men's loss of jobs and sources of income and the later by women's loss of their self respect through their dependence on a humanitarian aid provided by local, national and international institutions. These two crises of masculinity and femininity have been resisted by the production or reproduction of alternative modes of gender, agency and subjectivity. Although I attempted to understand how and if gender has been renegotiated in order to develop resources for coping and resisting this chronic livelihood crisis, I also sought to go beyond this limited understanding of women's agencies based on renegotiation of gender relations to explore the subjective aspect of resistance through women's agency by paying attention to the moral meanings associated with gender identity. The research methodology I used I used a permissive sample of 60 poor housewives from two different sites whose their household households were reliant on humanitarian aid, 30 housewives from Shejia. It's a poor neighborhood located in the eastern border of Gaza and was exposed to lots of military Israeli incursion and its inhabitants are only non refugees and the other site is the refugee camp which I was living in located in the western border of Gaza that is only inhabited by refugees. The empirical analysis and argumentation of my research wrote my book were drawn from women's interpretation of their life experiences as they were narrated and negotiated in the individual in depth interviews and life stories in addition to large number of focus groups with men and women. So for those who are not familiar with the context of Gaza, I just give brief idea about the context of Gaza during the period of the research but still again is still relevant to the context of today. Since the beginning of the second intifada in September 2000, women, men and children in the occupied Palestinian territories of Gaza, west bank and East Jerusalem have experienced unprecedented insecurity at individual, familiar and community levels. The Gaza Strip with its specific geopolitical context has been exposed to relentless armed conflict the last 10 days. Israeli armed assault against Gaza cured few months before finalizing my book in mid November 2012. The Israeli assault resulted in killing 140 people, most of them civilians, wounding 1,200 people, completely destroying 120 homes and damaging 9,000 homes. The last assault occurred whilst Gaza was hardly relieving the destructive material and humanitarian effect of the longer and harsher Israeli assault against Gaza in December 2008. By this prolonged closure of Gaza borders and the destruction of Gaza political economy, the majority of households, around 80% of Gazan households lost their formal and informal economic sources for livelihood survival and became reliant on a humanitarian aid from international, national and local charity organization. Such context generated profound gender and generational changes which considerably dislocating the structural basis of patriarchy and male domination in the society, particularly in Gaza. So I'll try to I selected number of arguments or the major arguments of my of my book which contribute to theorizing gendered agency and subjectivity. Of course within the specific context of Gaza and my arguments. I'm saying before I go through the arguments they are not generalizable and they may not applicable to other contexts and to other women from different socioeconomic groups. So the first argument I revealed in my research is the dislocation of gender structure and gender relational dynamics. Gender dislocation in Gaza is exemplified by changes in the gender and generational structure and gender relational dynamics. These changes include the loss of economic opportunities clear yeah, a loss of economic opportunities for men enabling them to provide for their families, men's loss of influence in decision making with kin and community institutions and their inability to provide security or protection for their family members. Another change is changing gendered education and employment preferences and shifting the power of responsibility from the older to the younger generation. For example, young women and men were encouraged to finish their university education to find sources to find secure jobs in the public sector or in the community based organization where national and international humanitarian aid programs implemented through food distribution and temporary job creation schemes. Young wives have had a central role in household and local community and acted as the primary family provider while their husbands were jobless and helpless. The role of mothers in law was marginalized because before an extended family or even in nuclear families mother is mothers in law used to have a central role. The role of mothers in law was marginalized for the advantage of young daughters in law and the shifting of mother in law daughters in law relations from contestation to cooperation. Another gender changes is marriage patterns have also been transformed, becoming rationalized as a project for livelihood survival more than being a symbol of the persistence of patriarchy. One example being the growing preference of many young men to marry an older woman with secure public sector job, especially the teachers and nurses who pass the socially proper age of marriage. Liberation of women's mobility and feminization over humanitarian aid where women had a leading position in community based or humanitarian organizations managing and distribution humanitarian assistance to families in needs and the last gender and generational changes is that jobless men's changing behaviors towards their wives they become more tolerant and cooperative with their wives and appreciating their wives endurance and self sacrifice for family provision. The second argument is that the women's agency appears multiple and contradictory and used gender, self and other presentation as a means of resistance. So in addition, I mean, as appears in my empirical findings, in addition to confirming the historical fluidity of gender structure in Palestinian society which was also supported by other literatures, my research analysis provides empirical evidence that the fluidity of gender structure in the specific context of Gaza does not necessarily create fluidity in the ideological and subjective image of women's subordination and male domination. Poor and vulnerable women and men in Gaza struggle to rescue the historically embedded image of their gendered selves from the consequences of the dislocation of the socioeconomic gendered structural arrangement which was forcefully caused by the destruction of Gaza political economy and its reliance on international humanitarian aid, and consistent by both men and women as a humiliating gender dislocation. Gender dislocation in Gaza during the second Intifada contributed to shaping a contradictory gendered subjectivity among poor women and men in Gaza. On the one hand, poor housewives actually act as the primary provider and the main decision maker in the household and also in the local community, while large number of men was economically helpless and hopeless. On the other hand, these women, or I'm talking about poor housewives, these women willingly enhance the presentation of their feminine subjectivity as subordinate to a dominant masculine subjectivity. The multiple contradictory model of men and women's subjectivity in Gaza is clearly reflected in their narration of their life experiences during the years of closure. I selected number of quotations that reflects my arguments. Those who do say those who are Arabs would more maybe better understand some of the quotation because it reflects their own culture. But one of the quotation is One woman said we get tired from shahdat means searching, humiliation of searching for coupons. I mean here food coupons are closed coupons. We need our husbands to go back to work and we go back respected domesticated women. I'm not sure if domesticated is the right translation, but I mean I asked several people and it seems that it's the most suitable translation. Another woman said it would be Arham Lau Ana armale means it would be a mercy for me if I were a widow rather than to see my husband with all his afiyyatu physical well being unable to do anything. Another woman called um Hussam, she's from non refugee in her late 40s says at these days we do subsequent substitute what men supposed to do for providing the family Never fail, never fails. We are always careful not to make our husbands feel bad about what we do. Our men trust us. They know that we go out of our homes and leave our children for long hours for the necessity of living that men cannot meet at the current days. Ahmad from the beach camp said, do you think my husband is happy to see me moving around searching for co bonds? Of course not. It is very embarrassing for him, not for her because he knows that it is his responsibility to provide for the family. Our men would not allow us to leave home to provide for the family if they do work and earn income. Every man of course this is generalization. It's a technique of presenting their gender subjectivity and the other gender in a certain way. Every man in Gaza likes his wife to be respected, domesticated wife. This doesn't mean that this is a reality, but she has to present men in Gaza in a romanticized way. Another quotation or narration of a man called Aburami, a middle aged man who had worked in Israel or used to work in Israel as a contractor, means he used to earn lots of money, expressed the political and moral effect of the Israeli policy of closure on husband wife relations by saying what is happening with us as men has never been imagined before. Does anyone of us expect Maratoulim Satata, his respected wife, to be begging for a Kubon? Of course, all those women lived in poverty before the second Intifada. But their vulnerability, the vulnerability of men I think is the main reason why men and women using their gender self control presentation in order to resist the humiliation rather than the poverty itself. So he said, does anyone of us expect Maratulim Satata, his respected wife, to be begging for a Kubon? We used to see women of our mother's age trading in the market. We used to accept our wives going out to do the shopping for themselves and for the children. We also used to accept that our wives could go out to work as teachers and nurses, but we never expected them to humiliate themselves for a coupon. But Niswanna, our wives are really determined and they deserve respect. They do not even let us feel bad about ourselves. They bear this burden because they know that it is not through lack of manliness that we cannot earn income, but it is the closure which is out of our control. So these are just very few narrations or quotations I selected from my research participants to support my analysis and my arguments. So these narration reveal that women as well as men in Gaza are intent on enhancing the ideology of male domination and women's subordination as set of desires and fantasies. Challenging the dislocation of the gender structure in order to maintain a sense of meaningful social existence. I argue that in situation where gender structure is dislocated and the basis of structural gender self identification and signification are undermined, such as the situation of Gaza structure, poor and vulnerable men and women may have no other options except to protect the prevailing symbolic moral and ideological order or as described by Kathleen Ewing, a symbolic whole so as to not appear distorted. As a consequence, the consistency between the intra and inter subjective image of genders remains intact. In such a situation, relations between men and women need to be marked by sexual differences as fixed relations of power, although in reality they are fluid and continuously changing in order for society as a whole to be brought into being. This analysis is illustrated by Gazan women's justification of their of their jobless men, of their jobless men's violence and the refusal to make them involved in domestic work in order not to make them feel down or inferior. Jobless men, on the other hand, enhance the feminine aspects of their wives by showing up that wife's enactment as primary family provider is a sign of their endurance of pain and self sacrifice for the sake of their family survival and their appreciation of their husband despite their helplessness. This presentation of masculinity and femininity as an important constituent of gender ideology is a dynamic used by both men and women to maintain the distorted ideology of gender invisible, and as a consequence, the whole society maintains its symbolic social continuity in a situation of conflict or threat against the whole society. Such self presentation and the presentation of other plays a critical role in resisting the collective threat, even if this situation facilitates individual agency to gain actual power and to act autonomously. The gender subject in Gaza appears as a set of. The gender subject in Gaza appears as set of multiple contradictory selves that are contextually shifting back and forth progressively and conservatively in response to internal and external impetuses. Within this process, the gendered subject aims to sustain self satisfaction and self valuation that is identified by the satisfaction and the valuing of the other or other gender subjectivity. Yeah. The third argument Gender subjectivity is not only shared by economic necessities or by material needs, but also by the moral order. In the context of poverty, vulnerability and insecurity. In Gaza, male and female Palestinian subjects are not only shaped by situation and economic necessity, but also by the moral order through which moral selves have historically been structured and the inner world. Organized resistance by Gazan people to preserve a level of family security and economic survival during the humanitarian crisis is simultaneously accompanied with resistance to the possible harmful effects of these survival strategies on their moral order based on the ideology of patriarchy and male domination. Within this process of twofold resistance, the Balsian subject is in a complex encounter between the necessary material and relational enactment of agency for the sake of economic survival means the capacity of agency to act against the gender stereotype, and the effect of this enactment on the moral construction of gender subject means the early social and cultural identification and signification of gendered subject. The complexity of this encounter is illustrated in how the gender subject, a man or a woman, balances between the Rationalization and strategizing of agency means calculating actions to ensure the attainment of material outcomes which include the use of deception and difference and displaying their inferiority with the humanitarian institutions to gain minimum support for their family survival. And the moralization of agency means ensuring that the actions taken do not disregard the socially and culturally constructed moral image of the gendered selves. This is exemplified in again in women's saying that we act like 10 men but we keep our reputation as respected women intact. So this disturbances to more traditional gender performance as they have played out against the actual interest and desire. Desires of both men and women for the sake of household family survival have created a means of resistance which reflects their subjective gendered image. Women and men's presentation of their desired gender subject position are illustrative. Women want to go back to their gender position. They don't want to be autonomous, they don't want to be powerful, they don't want to be decision makers. They want to go back to their gendered traditional gendered position as respected domesticated wives reliant on their husbands as primary income earners and decision maker. Men also want to be able to fulfill their family obligation and to maintain their economic and social authority within the family and in the public sector fear the fourth argument, which is challenging the liberal feminist argument that Gazan women's agency is not only associated with women's capability to transcend gender stereotyping and to efficiently practice the masculine aspect of agency or of power. Poor women's agency reveals itself in Gaza as multiple and self contradictory. It takes on different forms of enactment and reflects various forms of consciousness. It moves between being rational and emotional, pragmatic and idealistic, so that women realize their double goals in life, namely to meet their desirable subject as ideal wives and mothers who who willingly and pleasurably provide love, care and self sacrifice for their intimates, including those who have historically subordinated them and to build a strong material livelihood base for their family's future as strategic source of personal familiar security. To achieve the two goals, women need to bolster both the masculine and feminine aspects of their agency, which each must be used carefully to reduce the risk of the other and or to legitimize the socially illegitimate practice and through which women maintain their social and moral recognition. In this context, the interests beyond the two forms of agency are not opposing. These two aspects deliberately operate together to construct the distinctive features of good women, a capable woman with moral sense of femininity. Bolstering masculine and feminine aspects of agency is reflected in the frequent sayings that women use that they are very powerful, they are string, they can act like thin men. As I said before, this bolstering process is an attempt to balance the fantasy of power with the fantasy of gendered self awareness by which both men and women keep a meaning of self respect consistent with the society moral order. The last argument is that also challenging both the structural and both structural feminist understanding of agency is I argue in my book that gender self is relational, but it is not only determined or defined by the structure of power. The model of women's agency appears or reveals in my research overlaps with Judith Butler post structural theorizing of women's agency that is the setup power relation does not only simply dominate the subject but also create the means for the subject to be a self conscious agent. However, the performance of self conscious agents for Butler and other post structural feminists remains confined to the goal of resisting the existing structure of domination. The model of self constitution revealed from my research subject challenges Judith Butler's theory of performativity which presents changes in a woman's performativity of gender body as a determinant for changing their gender consciousness and as a result for resisting the dominant gender norms and culture. She proposes that gender is an effect of power protected by the reiterated performance of norms which appears as an abiding interior depth. For Butler, each structure of oppressive norms, including gender norms, has the possibility to be transgressed by the individual repetition of practices that reflect the knowledge and capacity they acquire throughout their subjectivities or subjectivation. Although I argue, I agree with Butler, that each structure of oppression has the possibility to be resisted. The resistance of oppression, including gender oppression, never. Yeah. Although I agree with Butler that each structural oppression has the possibility to be resisted, I'm saying that the resistance of oppression, including gender oppression, never takes a singular form, nor is merely confined to the changing of body performance, nor necessarily leads to resistance to the ideology of male domination. I, however, emphasize that gender self is relational and it is embedded in the social structure of power. It is not only determined by the material aspect of power because the material aspect of power is always in motion. Gender self is also an issue of moral signification that continuously contributes in producing and reproducing the symbolic moral whole through which women maintain a meaning for their social engagement and existence. The female subject in Gaza, as in many other patriarchal societies, has historically been constructed to be relational, that is to be identified and signified by the significant other through which the whole society maintains its social identity and meaning. Meeting the subject relational desire in the Gazan society or in the Gazan context requires a process of matrial signification of each gender to the other. Relational desire appears as contextual and its ultimate goal is a subject desire to remain morally recognized by and consistent with the symbolic whole. Women in Gaza offer a good example of how the contextual change in gender relation for the advantage of women's position of power within the household and in the local community is not a desirable change because it threatens the collective system of gender signification. This is why the model of individual self bounded autonomous performance by women in the specific context of Gaza is considered valueless and dissatisfactory because it is not associated with a valuable performance of the other gender. My overall analysis and argumentation gives an answer to my research question why women in Gaza did not deploy the situational changes of gender power relations to adjust their gender intra and intersubjective image. Women in Gaza show that they feel their moral feminine image as respected domesticated women in a position is more valuable of course within the specific context because this would be different in other contexts and also with other women from different socioeconomic background. In Gaza itself, their position as respected domesticated women is more valuable than being in a position of power that reflects the destruction of the whole societal structure and the attendant threat to the collective identity. This is a mechanism of resistance against the devastation of the Palestinian political economy by the Israeli occupation, using gender self presentation and self other presentation as a means to preserve the symbolic whole of the Gaza society from being distorted and to keep the distortion of patriarchal ideology invisible. To conclude my book challenge several theories of gendered agency or gender subjectivity, including the liberal individualistic as well as the cultural relativist notions of subject and agency. The gender subject revealed in my empirical research is neither a universal model of self bounded and autonomous individual nor it is a single coherent model of socially and culturally constituted self. It is rather a multiple and contradictory model of socially and culturally constructed subject that through its desire for engagement with the social world and its values produces the capacity to be reflective and self creative. And I think the message that from my book to all those who studying women's agency or gendered agency is to think that agency isn't unpredictable. It's always changing, not only with the changing of the context but also with the changing of the individual experiences of women within the same context. Thank you so much.
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A
Thank you very much for a very fascinating effort provoking talk before I open the floor to questions. I'm sure you all have a large number of questions to ask. I know Certainly it raised several for me. I'd like to say that Ashgate is.
- [39:01]
B
Here.
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A
And there's a bookstall right here. So I think that at the end of the talk there will be some time for you to go and purchase the book. And Asmar, will you then sign the book? She will have a book signing at.
- [39:22]
B
The end of the talk.
- [39:23]
A
So do make your way to right in front where there's a bookstore for you if you should like that. Okay, so let's open the floor to Q and A. As I said before. Okay, let me stand up so I.
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B
Can see you all.
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A
As I said before, when you do ask a question, if you could introduce yourself that would be really good. And I mean by introduction as if you mean you know your end and your affiliation. And what we'll do is perhaps we'll gather some questions together and then. And you'd like to. Yes, so a few.
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B
Okay. Okay.
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A
And then so we'll take maybe a couple of questions at a time. So questions please.
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C
My name is Ahmad and I'm journalist.
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B
My question is why people in the Gaza is poor? Because. Sorry, can you speak of it?
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A
Because people at the back can't really.
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D
Hear you because as Iranians suppose we.
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B
Send a lot of money in Gaza and Palestine and some Iranian is not happy. So if the problem is you just pay for food or basic luck, what's happening for a lot of money come to the gas. Thank you.
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C
My question, sorry, my name is Basima, I'm also originally from base time and I'm just. My question is I don't know why the conclusion that the woman are you.
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A
Here right in the back.
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B
Maybe the.
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A
Questions could stand up. Yeah, if you, if you want or if you feel more comfortable studying, it's fine. Otherwise just give it.
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B
Yeah.
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C
The conclusion of the study that the women preferred not to be in a power position, but I didn't see any power position. These women had to go and running around Shah behind the coupon. It was not a joke, it was not a fulfilling job. So obviously anyone prefer to be a kept woman than being running around and having to for benefit basically and running to get difficult ones to feed her family. But I can't see that this is going to be generalized like you say. For if these women were doing jobs to provide for the family with all the positive things you said at the beginning, like the mother in law role has been more cooperative, all those positive things, do you think it would be that these women would go back to say no, I don't want this Power.
- [41:43]
B
I prefer to be.
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C
I mean, obviously there's a lot of, you know, women will prefer to be homemakers, but I don't think it should be like that. Conclusion. I sort of disagree with it.
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B
Thank you.
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A
Shall I take one more question?
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E
Marcia, I'm Marsha Henry.
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F
I'm from the Gender Institute here at ose. Thank you so much for your talk. And obviously you couldn't account for all.
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B
Of the.
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F
Findings from your book, but I was wondering if you could say a little bit more about the women's accounts in relation to other women because you focus very much on the kind of the nuclear family and the heterosexual unit as the kind of primary axis by which gender comes to be constructed. And I was just wondering how the women that you spoke to constructed their gendered subjectivities in relation to other women within their community.
- [42:44]
B
Thank you. About the first question, I don't think it's so much relevant with my book why people in Gaza are poor. It's clear that they are poor because of the closure, because of the Israeli policy of siege, regardless of millions of billions of dollars paid to the government.
- [43:03]
A
Do you want to kind of maybe answer sitting up, Sitting there because rich people are. I can't hear you at all.
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B
Sorry, not that way. Yeah, you could maybe sit.
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A
There's a mic there.
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B
So yeah, I don't think your question is relevant to my book discussion or arguments because why people in Gaza are poor or why women and men living in marginalized areas are poor because of, basically because of the Israeli policy of closure. And millions, billions of of dollars paid not only by Iranian government but by the international community was spent to provide poor families, poor households with humanitarian aid. And this is my major point, that humanitarian aid has been perceived till today as a humiliating. People want to live in a respected, you know, circumstances, position. They want to work, they want to earn income, men and women. So I specify all my arguments in relation to the specific sample I talked about. So you don't blame those people of being poor. You blame maybe the policies of the international community and the Israeli policies of closure that has been continued till today. Very sharply. Yes, I completely agree with you. If those women, my research subject, if they are given respected jobs and I mentioned somewhere, of course I can't cover all the book chapters. No, no, no. This is my specific sample. It's the poorest household, the most vulnerable families who are completely reliant on a humanitarian aid. And I said in the beginning, you can't generalize the findings of my book. It can't. I Did research about Hamas women who are highly educated and they are in middle and high management position and the findings of or the arguments about their agency is completely different than mine. And I more agree with Judith Butler rather than disagree with her. So this is why I'm always saying that gender subjectivity is contextual but also self reflective and self creative. So definitely if those women, poor women, are given proper jobs, respected jobs, for example, working as nurses, teachers, even secretaries, which is not so much accepted in traditional societies, they won't go to look for co bonds, of course. So this is the context that I'm using. How women resist their humiliation through humanitarian aid by using the moral presentation of their gendered image. I mentioned about the last question, I mentioned the relational dynamics between women and other women within my research sample, which they are all poor, I haven't said anything about it, but there is no solidarity amongst poor women and not being supported to each other is a dynamic for survival. So for example, in the Palestinian society, women used to support each other, their neighbors, they need, they used to sit together to disseminate information about the services provided in their local community. But in the situation of humanitarian crisis, this community relation, this relations between amongst poor women has undermined because if they support each other with information about the humanitarian services, this would reduce the possibility of having more access to. So they use these bargaining techniques they used to go to community centers, for example, when humanitarian support is provided and they don't even prefer to see their relatives because they will be embarrassed to tell them what kind of humanitarian services available in this camp or that neighborhood. So again, solidarity amongst women has undermined because of the humanitarian crisis. Yeah, hopefully I give a clear answer.
- [47:54]
G
Hi, my name is Ahmed, I'm a student of international Politics at City University, London. I have a question about the book title and also about the sample that you use. The book suggest that you're talking about Gaza and Durham. The kind of sample that you use was only from marginalized areas. I'm also from Gaza and I know these are just the worst neighborhoods in Gaza. So I know, I expect the kind.
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B
Of people who use there.
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G
So I was wondering, what do you think other women who live like in middle class and upper class neighborhoods in Ghana, what would they think? What is their gender position would be?
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B
Thank you very much.
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E
My name is Gabriela, I'm a master's student here at the LST in the International Development Department and I'm also working with the European bank for Reconstruction Development on a project they're actually chairing a multilateral Development bank working group on the notion of voice, agency and participation in gender work, which is becoming kind of a new buzzword in development. So I really appreciated your last comment about kind of message to think of agency as something that is context based and something changing. So I have a two part question. One is related to the latter point which is the World bank has kind of defined agency in different categories. Freedom from the freedom from gender based violence, access and control over land, voice in society and participation. Freedom of movement, mobility and decision making over family formation. Based on your research and your perspective, do you think this is an adequate way to define agency and an adequate approach? The other question is why do you think it is that women are the ones who go out to search for coupons and try to make it work while their husbands stay at home? This is not obviously a specific situation where you were doing your research, but it is something that we can see in many other places where women just do what it takes for the family survival and men really suffer from that sense of humility. I'm just wondering why you think that is.
- [50:07]
B
Thank you. Shall we take one more or. Are you okay? Yeah, I think it's okay. I think we need to do research about the middle class women in order to see the differences in terms of agency and the dynamics women use based on the different economic background, backgrounds and maybe the employment. Different employments or different locations. But definitely middle class women who have. I mean I consider myself as a researcher, as a middle class woman and I was not acting the same way in terms of the coping mechanism to the situation of insecurity. But I can't generalize that all other middle class women acted insecure similar way. Again, my point of view is that it's not only class, socioeconomic backgrounds, economic position of women that determine the way they interact with the situation or the social world around them. But I can't give you an answer about all other middle class women and how they reacted to the situation of insecurity. I think, I think your question is, or your comment is so important and it's an alarming point to the World bank in particular, but to all other international agencies, especially those which operate in the occupied territories because they cover their eyes of the reality, the reality that humanitarian aid as a main source of livelihood for Palestinians, especially in Gaza has been since 1993, the introduction of the security policy, the Israeli security policy, and they have been spending millions and billions of dollars on a humanitarian aid without seriously intervening in solving the political problem. I mean, I don't want to speak about politics in Palestine. But it also relates, I think the problematic of humanitarian aid is related to the standardized concepts of agency, empowerment, freedom and you know, the universal understanding of these concepts which is not anymore relevant to the actual context to the reality of women's and men's day to day life. And you mentioned the criteria they use is, you know, women are empowered when they are free of gender based violence. I just mentioned it very briefly in my presentation about women in Gaza. I mean of course for men become jobless or became jobless, they express their joblessness through using kind of violence, not necessarily physical violence by using bad words toward their children. One of the interesting finding that they were not saying any bad word against their wives which was acceptable before. Yeah, because they respected their wives who become primary family providers and they change their behaviors. On the other hand, women justified. I have a, I don't know a full section about how women justified their husband's violence for the reason of their joblessness. They don't forget their history of gender oppression. I mean those women who were oppressed by their husbands, they didn't forget their past but they focus on the present in order to justify the new gender relational dynamics that are used. They say our husbands, if they get work, if they get job, they won't practice violence against the children, they won't practice practice violence against us. And they also have the techniques of maneuvering and they know how to calm their husbands down and they make them able to, you know, manage the crisis of their masculinity. So I think my research findings and theorizing of women's agency should be useful for the World bank and UNDB and all international agencies. And I had this discussion, discussion with Oxfam also we discussed the concept of empowerment to be perceived in a different way and not to understand it as a linear, you know, kind of process because I mean no one can decide for women how to be empowered and how to be disempowered and empowerment, disempowerment are both needed at certain, in a certain context like the context of Gaza women humiliated women who have to go to look for co bonds. No, they prefer to be disempowered or to be perceived as disempowered, not autonomous in order to keep their self respect. Thank you very much.
- [55:13]
A
Okay, so the question right.
- [55:17]
B
Yes please. At King's College I'm part of the board study today. But what is you were looking like the socio political socioeconomic situation in Gaza and I'm wondering what role you think that the security Situation there would play.
- [55:38]
E
In reinforcing some of these in some.
- [55:41]
B
Of the gender roles and how that would affect agency of women in Gaza as well. Thank you.
- [55:49]
A
Any other somebody else want to ask a question before I.
- [55:54]
E
My name is Michalina and I'm a.
- [55:55]
B
PhD student at SOAS. And I was wondering if you could.
- [55:59]
A
Elaborate a little bit more on constructions of masculinity.
- [56:02]
F
Like did they remain rather static or.
- [56:04]
B
Did you see some kind of alternative masculinities that develop? Okay. I remember one of my research participants, it's a Sloan long time ago, but they said we used to live in poverty for decades and we were able to manage unless all our problems, economic problems are not heard by others. But the situation of insecurity, vulnerability, uncertainty during the second intifada and the false siege and still valid again now from my communication with some Gazan people is the main reason why, you know, households or poor women reacted in this way and they want to go back and they can manage their poverty, the material meanings of poverty, but they don't want to be humiliated. They don't want to live in uncertainty poverty. I mean, I think anyone read about the history of, of Gaza, I mean refugees who especially live in camps, they have been living in poverty since 1948 to 1967. Masculinity, of course, my book argues that masculinity is not static. Masculinity is multiple, contradictory, changing contextual, changing with a changing socioeconomic context. And I think this is what scholarship about men in the Middle east should give more concern to study masculinity, especially after the Arab uprising, because there are a lot of changes happened and men become more vulnerable not only at a material level, but also at socio cultural level and maybe relevant to my next research. One reason that many young men become Salafists or I'm going to examine this assumption. But masculinity is not static. It's changing. Either going back to the past or thinking about something new and the future, either being modern or Salafist. And the most important thing in my research, which I discovered during my field work, I mean, I didn't plan to analyze masculine and femininity in this way before I nearly finished my field work. I mean, I didn't expect that men in Gaza, although I'm a Gazan, I lived in Gaza, my husband is Gazan, you know, but I didn't expect men and women to present each other in this way. And then, you know, I got details about, you know, women's life histories that helped me. The method I used Life history is so, so useful for understanding the changing dynamics, the fluidity of gender relation, the fluidity of women's even perception of them, themselves and the other, other gender, including, you know, understanding themselves within the household or in the wider community.
- [59:33]
A
There was also one question from the war studies. You have a question about.
- [59:46]
B
I thought. Yeah, about the security situation. Yeah.
- [59:54]
A
And is there anything else?
- [59:55]
B
And. Okay. Oh, yeah.
- [59:57]
A
Okay, let me take three questions so yours and then we'll follow it up with yours.
- [60:02]
B
And then. Yeah.
- [60:05]
H
Welcome from Egypt and also from Palestinian. The situation that you are describing is the situation that we all know in traditionally Palestinian society where the greatest thing a woman can wish is to become a settler, which is protected, which reflects.
- [60:27]
B
But it's not a class term, it's not that or respected within the moral.
- [60:38]
H
Gender order of husband, children or that's the traditional structure, basically many other societies as well. My question is, any chances, are there any chances that different changes, the different. Regional facts taking place like the Arab Spring, can affect this change into a way where the greatest ambition of a woman will not to become just to fulfill herself in society in a way that she can have a role, have more power as herself, not as a husband or daughter or whatever, as a.
- [61:36]
I
Wife or a daughter or whatever.
- [61:43]
B
Thank you. Good evening.
- [61:46]
I
My name is Katherine and I worked in Gaza in 2012 and 2019.
- [61:50]
B
Recently.
- [61:52]
I
I have one comment, one question, one short comment. Because we spoke about very poor middle class and upper class. And that's true that there is a wide range, much wider than you can think, but I don't remember exact that number. I think 2/3 of the households are depending on the age, food aid, which is really a huge percentage. I was surprised because I read the last Palestinian Bureau of Statistics survey on violence. I think it was issued in 2010, something like that. And there was a whole paragraph on family, on violence within the family, household. And there was, interestingly enough, and I'm not sure I fully understand, there was a question on violence by women, on, by wife, on men. And there was rather interesting percentage. In fact, as far as I remember, it was 15% women saying that they had some violent.
- [62:54]
B
Against their, against their husbands. Well, I'm so happy to hear this because in Britain, I think in Britain they haven't done research that's showing there is violence from men against, from women against men. But I doubt, because it's socially, culturally unacceptable for women to say that we practice violence against. I haven't read it. I haven't read it. But I mean, I'm lucky Because I just finished with this research, Oxfam research in five Arab countries. And I think one of the most important issue that need to be examined in using different conceptual bias background in terms of the definition of agency and empowerment is gender based violence. Because the way surveys dealing with gender based violence is very problematic. Because if you go to a woman and ask her if there is a violence against you from your husband, she may say yes or no. But what are the structural causes, what are the context, the changing context of, of the particular violence? And some women, I mean, following traditional culture or following religion or whatever, some women categorize violence in different way. I mean, if he says a bad word to her within the concept of obedience or if it's because he's not happy with her and there is no law of divorce and, and you know, other, many, many reasons that cause the violence. So if we want to understand violence, gender based violence, we have to understand the different forms of violence within what context they are practiced and et cetera. I find it very problematic because in Tunisia, for example, women's activists, feminist activists only focus on gender based violence following statistics taken from national surveys. And this also creates sometimes a reversal effect amongst women because they think that the kind of mobilization against gender based violence is making, according to one of the quotations from a Tunisian woman, this kind of feminist activism caused troubles in our families. We know how to solve our gender based violence. That yeah, I mean actually they know, Arab women know how to manage all these things. Okay, I don't know if there was.
- [65:38]
A
Just one more question.
- [65:42]
B
Oh yeah, the Arab Spring. I think I'm proud to say that my book is very much relevant to the context in the Arab post Arab uprising country countries. I'm not saying the same. It creates, the Arab uprising creates the same form of agency because those poor ordinary women, the mass of women of poor women who participated in the public place after they, when they see that they haven't achieved that, you know, kind of changes in their day to day life in terms of their poverty, they go back and become hopeless about the future. And maybe they use the same dynamics they used before because the agency needs time in order to be consolidated and needs to be, to have some changes at the structure, political level in order to be consolidated. But maybe I think what is relevant is the increasing and the flourishing of the Islamic women's activism that use some moral Islamic ideas to mobilize women, that make some women very, very active and Asian too. But at the same time within the kind of patriarchal culture and when I use patriarchal culture. I don't put it as a kind of static reflection of patriarchal structure because patriarchal structure it is existed. Maybe Peter the socialist disagree with me, but I'm saying that the battery structure in all Arab in most countries of our Arab societies is distorted, you know, with the new liberal policies. Although the policymakers use the patriarchal structure as an instrument to validate and legitimize the new liberal policies. But it's actually distorted because both men and women are, you know, jobless, they are vulnerable, they are not involved in decision making. And this structure of male domination is not rigid as some people use in their studies. Okay, thank you.
- [68:22]
A
Finally now I come to you. My name is Katrina.
- [68:26]
F
I'm a master's student.
- [68:30]
B
Focus on gender.
- [68:32]
F
I was wondering from what you were explaining, it looked like, of course, both masculinities and femininities are in crisis, but women kind of found a way to still get respect for what they do because they can take up the role of the sacrificing mother who is doing a lot to sustain the family and help. So in some way it is like. But on the other hand, she's also reiterating the role of a sacrificing mother.
- [69:07]
B
But other.
- [69:08]
F
Did you also encounter any strategies of men to get out of the crisis of masculinity? Was there any way in how far men could show that they're still masculine?
- [69:20]
B
I mean, as I presented in my book with the use of gender self as a representation. I mean, the way they presented their wives as self sacrifice, enduring the pain and being family provider is a humiliating position. It's a way to strengthen their masculinity and to resist their masculinity crisis. For example, when I analyzed men's become husbands become more cooperative. They presented it in relation to their wives because their wives are humiliating themselves by begging for coupons. So they have to show them respect and love. It's a kind of machul signification, each one trying to signify the other in relation to the patriarchal culture in order to create kind of balance between their desire for being powerful as men and their inner gendered image about themselves as being powerful, primary provider and etc. Yeah.
- [70:44]
A
Okay, thank you. I'm now going to take the last round of questions. So I see I have back in any other questions at all, two questions and I think. Is there anybody else?
- [70:55]
F
Yes, also three.
- [70:56]
A
Okay, so and then, and then. So that people have time if they wish to come to your. Okay, so three questions right at the end. And then there's one there and then yours.
- [71:10]
J
I understand.
- [71:11]
A
Sorry, could you just please say who you are.
- [71:15]
J
I understand that you did a time specific study, but still I wonder whether you could say something about the historical development of how you see the gender subjectivity. You said it was related to economic necessity, but also to the development of the moral order. But the moral order as everybody knows it has changed dramatically in Palestine over the last 20 or 30 years. I mean 20 or 30 years ago the model for women's subjectivity was to some extent at least laid up the left and the, you know, heroic, self sacrificing, militant woman who could conquer everything. And I'm wondering if there's, if you could say something about it. It seems to me that there's some, there's some problem that has developed then where you see a sort of failure of the Palestinian secular left to take up the question of women's liberation, women's emancipation, social liberation and so on. And whether you see that as something that has led to, of the situation that you're describing today.
- [72:17]
A
Thank you very much.
- [72:24]
D
I also kind of had a historical modern question because we know that women, women's movements are not new in Palestine and in the first Intifada women were quite central in organizing, Community organized etc, but today we have fragment with and changing kind of Egypt flip flopping in terms of their pressure. I'm wondering if you could make a kind of comparison between maybe from your own insight or experience or what people might have said from what was going on in the first and now with the kind of internal political divide and the pressures from, from Egypt, the Egypt side as well. More like a request actually. I'm now talking about raza and specific class. I'm wondering if you can actually apply different research to the other regions like the Gulf and you know, which is. They have different economical situations there. So the next research is about on the middle class woman. What woman? It's interesting to compare with the results of the woman. And if they have, the result is going to be the same or not because of the culture. And yes, it can be different.
- [73:54]
B
Okay, yeah. Peter, I agree with you that the moral order is also not rigid. It's been changing. But my point that how the moral order tried to be used as an instrument, as a tool for stabilizing gender relation or gender, certain gender dynamics. And if we go back to the history, yes, women as I've said, have gender relation have been fluid, changing ups down. Women become more participating in political resistance. And I refer to the history of gender relations since 1948 in my book and confirming that gender relation has been fluid and dynamic, responding to the changing political, socioeconomic and cultural context. And I myself do not see the ideology, again the ideology of patriarchy, male domination and the resulting moral order as something very rigid, you know, because the Palestinian political economy has been disrupted the whole history and it affects the structure of patriarchy. So the only option for Palestinians throughout the history is to keep this moral order based on patriarchy. Even with Layla Khalid or other women's leaders in leftist parties, and I was involved in a leftist party before, we used to act in a contradictory manner. While we use patriarchal culture in our day to day life with the male members of our leftist political parties, we used to act as equal militant and community activists participating in national resistance and in militant resistance. So I don't think I ignored the history. I confirmed the fluidity of moral order and in the specific context of my research, a humanitarian crisis with the most vulnerable housewives, it's the only option available for them and the only way for them to revive their self respect is to present themselves in a way that is against the gender dislocation, which is humiliating. And I think anyone can imagine mothers of young children or wives going out and moving from one association to another looking for koborns to feed their children would be very humiliating. And I was living with those women for around eight months and I understand how they feel. And one of those women said to me, all these women's organizations talking about our value by going out and participating in the public, it's valueless. I mean, I remember it's somewhere in the book I want to go back. It's more valuable for me to stay at home, care about my children and not going out, just asking my husband to go and earn income. So this sense of humiliation which is caused by the international community and by the Israeli policy of closure is the major context, is the context of my analysis of how moral order is used. I'm afraid that Gaza is going back to the same level of humanitarian crisis because electricity is off more than half of the day according to my up to date information and the coping strategies reach their limit. So I can't say anything about any new dynamics that Palestinian women and men can use or can develop after the closure of tunnels which used to be a good source of livelihood for many, many poor families. I think the Egypt, Israel and the international community are aware about the effect of a humanitarian crisis against, against Gazan people, but they don't do anything. And this is why There are some campaigns here and there, but they are not really sufficient to put pressure in the international community with this regard. And I think how the politics in the Middle east as a whole is shaped these days is Gazan people will be the most disadvantaged at the humanitarian and political level. Other countries, Emirates, and I'm sorry to say that it's completely a different economic context that affects social and cultural context and dynamics women and men use in these countries. But I can't give any answer. I haven't been in any of the MRI Emirates or Gulf countries. But definitely there is a need for research. I think the Middle east center is more involved in any studies about the Gulf countries and Emirates and Qatar maybe. I don't know. But.
- [79:50]
H
A question that I've been thinking.
- [79:52]
B
About since you are talking.
- [79:54]
H
What about women who do not fit in? Women who have to say no to the traditional role. There are some Palestinian women today.
- [80:02]
B
Oh yeah, of course.
- [80:04]
H
Who have refused to stay in abusive marriage, a marriage where the family was controlling or willing to control her lives and have said no and have stayed in the society imposing their ways.
- [80:21]
B
Yeah, definitely, definitely. There are other forms of agency. I'm not saying that this form is the dominant generalizable form that applies to all women. I mean, I told you this Hamas woman who's leading police, secular women. But I'm afraid that they need to rethink about their dynamics and strategies if we talk about women's activism and strategies for mobilization. But definitely there are hundreds, thousands, thousands of activists, women, liberal, secular, socialist women who are so active exercise their agency completely in an autonomous way and they are very much involved in decision making at different levels. Yeah.
- [81:11]
A
I must now draw the session to a close. But before I do that, let me first let me draw your attention again to the bookstall right here. And as I said, as very kindly agreed to signed books if you should want to grab a copy.
- [81:29]
B
Thank you.
- [81:30]
A
The second thing I want to say is that the next. I've been asked to tell you that the next Middle East Centre event will be this Wednesday by Dr. Alice Wilson of Cambridge University who will speak on the instability in the Western Sahara. And finally, and not the least, I'm sure you join me in showing appreciation for to Asma for her.