Agency and Gender in Gaza: Masculinity, Femininity and Family during the Second Intifada

by Aitemad Muhanna

Overview

Drawing on rich interview material and adopting a life history approach, this book examines the agency of women living in insecure and uncertain conflict situations. It explores the effects of the Israeli policy of closure against Gaza and the resulting humanitarian crisis in relation to gender relations and gender subjectivity. With attention to the changing roles of men in the household and community as a result of the loss of male employment, the author explores the extension of poor women’s mobility, particularly that of young wives with dependent children, for whom the meaning of agency has shifted from being providers in the domestic sphere to becoming publicly dependent on humanitarian aid. Without conflating women’s agency with resistance to patriarchy, Agency and Gender in Gaza extends the concept of agency to include its subjective and intersubjective elements, shedding light on the recent distortion of the traditional gender order and the reasons for which women resist the masculine power that they have acquired as a result. An empirically grounded examination of the attempt to maintain the meaning of social existence through the preservation of socially constructed images of masculinity and femininity, this book will be of interest to social scientists with interests in gender studies, masculinities and the sociology of the family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367601256
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/30/2020
Pages:	222
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Aitemad Muhanna is Research Fellow at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.

Table of Contents

Foreword vii

Acknowledgements ix

Glossary and List of Abbreviations xi

1 The Contemporary History of Gazan Society and the Complexity of Gender 1

2 Agency and Meaning in Women's Lives: A Comparative Analytical Perspective 29

3 Family Structure and Gender Relations in Gaza under Israeli Military Occupation 55

4 The Impact of the Second Intifada on the Economics of Everyday Life 89

5 Gender Dynamics and the Crisis of Masculinity during the Second Intifada 129

6 Conclusion: Gazan Women - between the Masculinising of their Enactment and the Feminising of their Selfhood 163

Bibliography 183

Index 205

Editorial Reviews

'This book is well worth the time even for the casual reader, but will be of especial interest to those studying intersectional feminism. As an example of allowing poor women of a marginalized group the opportunity to tell their stories, it would suit the efforts of scholars working on poverty, gender, and the effects of war and of modernity on traditional family structures. Muhanna is to be commended for a thoughtful, enlightening and well-constructed work.' Digest of Middle East Studies ’Aitemad Muhanna's book gives us a vivid account of the everyday struggles of women and men in Gaza in the face of the brutality of the Israeli regime. Its exploration of the impact on gendered expectations of a highly unstable and insecure economic and political context offers some important wider insights about gender, agency and resistance.’ Andrea Cornwall, University of Sussex, UK ’Aitemad Muhanna has not only made a significant contribution to Palestinian and regional gender studies but has opened up new avenues for understanding gender and (colonial) conflict through her explorations of the crises in both masculinity and femininity experienced by Palestinian women and men struggling to survive in vulnerable circumstances and negotiate spousal relations during Israel’s sustained siege on Gaza.’ Penny Johnson, Editor, Review of Women’s Studies, Birzeit University, Palestine 'After much effort by scholars and activists in the Middle East, long-held stereotypes of Arab women as passive victims have given way to recognition of their agency. This book goes further to examine the multiple dimensions and effects of women’s agency in times of chronic crisis and impoverishment, as experienced in Gaza during the Second Intifada. Having grown up in Gaza and engaged in feminist activism and research on women for over two decades, Aitemad Muhanna is more than qualified to address this topic. Indeed, she breaks new ground and challenges many prevalent assumptions... Besid

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