Abstract
When one deals with a complex topic such as the collective memory of Palestinian women, a number of questions regarding the very notion of collective memory immediately come to mind. First and foremost is the question whether Palestinian women are allowed an equal share in Palestinian collective memory. Or, in other words, how inclusive, indeed, how collective is collective memory? Assuming one can recognize the various layers and strata of collective memory, one should ask how women conceive their own collective story inside the general one. Do disenfranchised groups develop their own versions of collective memory, different from the general narrative commonly accepted by the majority? Do they remember a different past? Do they envision themselves as central, viable participants in it, or as marginal to it? Finally, where and when does the act of memorizing take place, particularly in the case of Palestinian women? This chapter will analyze the various implications of these questions in the light of the vast body of data, research material, and documents at hand.
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Notes
Hashim Salih Mana‘, Al-Qadaya al-qawmiyya fi shi’r al-mar’a al-filastiniyya min sanat 1948–1974 (Kuwait: Sharikat Kazima Li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Tawzi’, 1984), p. 150. This book is the published MA thesis of the author, written at ‘Ayn Shams University in Cairo. All translations quoted from the Arabic sources in the chapter are mine.
Paul Connerton, How Societies Remember (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 22–23.
Suha Sabbagh, “An Interview with Sahar Khalifeh, Feminist Novelist,” in Palestinian Women of Gaza and the West Bank, ed. Suha Sabbagh (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), p. 137.
A’isha Abd al-Rahman, Al-Sha‘ira al-‘arabiyya al-mu‘asira (Cairo: Dar al-Ma‘rifa, 1965), p. 75.
One such case was a peasant woman from the West Bank, who was interviewed by Buthayna Sha’ban. To the question “How did you manage your lives under the Israeli occupation?” she gave the following answer: “To tell the truth, we didn’t notice their presence a great deal. Our village was quite far off and we carried on working on the land and living off our crops.” For details of this interview, see Buthaina Shaaban, Both Right and Left Handed: Arab Women Talk about Their Lives (London: Women’s Press, 1988), p. 139.
Cynthia Enloe, The Curious Feminist: Searching for Women in a New Age of Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 102–3.
Miriam Cooke, War’s Other Voices: Women Writers on the Lebanese Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 87.
Hilary Arksey and Peter Knight, Interviewing for Social Scientists (London: Sage, 1999), pp. 52–53.
An interesting research, in which business managers were interviewed on train journeys, clearly illustrates the importance of place in interviews. “What struck [the researchers] was the extent to which the views and opinions of the managers, off-guard and to a person they were unlikely to meet again, contradicted the ‘reality contained in much contemporary management literature.” Quoted in Mark Easterby-Smith, Richard Thorpe, and Andy Lowe, Management Research: An Introduction (London: Sage, 1991), p. 78.
Julie M. Peteet, Gender in Crisis: Women and the Palestinian Resistance Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 1991), p. 13.
Shakeel’s research appears in an article by Yvonne Haddad, “Palestinian Women: Patterns of Legitimation and Domination,” in The Sociology of the Palestinians, ed. Khalil Nakhleh and Elia Zureik (London: Croom Helm, 1980), pp. 170, 172.
Kenneth W. Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917–1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984), p. 26.
Ibid. It is interesting to compare Umm Mahmud’s words with words used by women in rural Palestine in the past. One example is given by Hilma Granqvist, who conducted an ethnological study among Palestinian Arabs in the village of Artas in the years 1925–31. After explaining that most of her material was derived from the women in the village, she wrote: “One must not, however, expect to find statements as to the women being happy or unhappy. Certainly at times they feel their lot heavy—and the fellahin men would agree—but in general they are too practical to devote themselves to reflection and analysis of their moods.” It seems that though the women’s autocensorship made them reticent about their feelings in front of a foreigner, the overall impression is that they did not view their lives as idyllically happy, as Umm Mahmud did. See Hilma Granqvist, Marriage Conditions in a Palestinian Village (Helsinki: Akademische Buchhandlung Helsingfors, 1931), p. 21.
Birgitte Rahbek Pedersen, “Oppressive and Liberating Elements in the Situation of Palestinian Women,” in Women in Islamic Societies: Social Attitudes and Historical Perspectives, ed. Bo Utas (London: Curzon, 1983), p. 188.
Quoted in Rosemary Sayigh, “Encounters with Palestinian Women under Occupation,” in Women and the Family in the Middle East: New Voices of Change, ed. Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985), p. 197.
Liyana Badr, “Liqa',” in Jahim dhahabi (Beirut: Dar al-Adab, 1991), p. 21.
Kathy Glavanis-Grantham, “The Women’s Movement, Feminism and the National Struggle in Palestine: Unresolved Contradictions,” in Women and Politics in the Third World, ed. Haleh Afshar (London; New York: Routledge, 1996): p. 174.
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© 2009 Meir Litvak
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Brand, H. (2009). Palestinian Women and Collective Memory. In: Litvak, M. (eds) Palestinian Collective Memory and National Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621633_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621633_7
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