fighting on two fronts conversations with palestinian women

8/10/2019 Fighting on Two Fronts Conversations With Palestinian Women

1/21

Fighting on Two Fronts: Conversations with Palestinian Women

Author(s): Soraya AntoniusReviewed work(s):Source: Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Spring, 1979), pp. 26-45Published by: University of California Presson behalf of the Institute for Palestine StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2536223.

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2/21

Fighting on

Two Fronts:

Conversations

with

Palestinian Women

SORAYA

ANTONIUS*

Woman

must carry gun.

Resistance logan1

In the revolution

we

need

women comrades

who are

intelligent

nd

educated;

we cannot

reach

victory lying

n

one

wing.

Dr. FatbiArafat2

The

salient characteristic

f

the women's

movement

n Palestine nd

in

exile has been

its

dentification,

ince

the earlypartof this entury, ith he

national movementgainst

Zionism. t is thisthat distinguishes

t from he

women'smovement

n

Egypt

or in Western ountries: mong

Palestinians

there

has

neverbeen a

broadly-based rassroots

movement orwomen's

rights; he major

efforts ave been devotedto political,national

nds, and

theemancipation

f

women

has come as anaccidental onsequence

f their

determinationo

carry

out some

political

ction,

such as a

demonstration,

which ntailed floutingfconventionalmores.

The Palestinianwomenwho first emonstrated

gainstZionist mmigra-

tion

n

1921 were heavily

eiledand rode n closed cars.Then,

n 1929, two

hundred elegates

rom ll over he country

ttended he first rab Women's

Congress

f

Palestine.

It

was

a bold

step to

takein view of the traditional

restrictions

hich,untilthen,prevented he

Arab woman n

Palestine rom

takingpart

in

anymovementwhichmight

xpose her to the

public eye."3

*

Soraya

Antonius

was formerly

ditor

of

the Middle

East

Forum

and

has served on

special

committees

f the

General

Union

of

Palestinian

Women.

1

A

Palestinian

Resistance

logan

that

first ecame

widespread

n

1969-70.

2

Dr.

Fathi Arafat,

Majallat

al-Hilal l-Ahmar l-Filastini,

No. 50 (January

978),

p. 18.

3

Matiel E.T. Mogannam,

The Arab

Woman

nd the

Palestine

Problem

London:

Herbert

Joseph,

1937), p. 70.

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3/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN

27

After

his

Congress,

elegates

sked

to

present petition

o the

British igh

Commissioner's

ife,

ince

prevalent

onventions

made t

mproper

or hem

to appearbefore man; whenthe British efused hisrequest, heydecided

that they

"had no other alternative

ut... to ignore

all traditional

estric-

tions."4

In

1933,

"for

the

first ime

n

history

Christianady

delivered

political peech

from he

pulpit

of a

mosque"5 (the

mosque

ofOmarfacing

the Church

of the Holy Sepulchre)

n

which she recalled the,

Muslim nd

Christian onquerors

f

Jerusalem

nd compared

Omar'shonoured ledge

o

Sophronius

withAllenby's

broken word,and then

a Muslim ady

made

a

speech

tanding

eforeChrist'somb

n

theHolySepulchre.

Between

these pioneering

adies and Leila Khaled,

Dalal

Mughrabi,

nd

their ontemporaries,ie fourwars, dozen major"incidents," hedestruc-

tion

of a

society

and the exile of

a

nation,

yet theyare recognizably

he

inspirers

nd progenitors

f

the women activists

f today.

Women still

demonstrate, resent

petitions,

make

bandages

and cook forthe

wounded,

stilldie

from ullet nd bomb,

s

they

did fifty ears go.

But

in

spite

of

these

affinities here

are

two

major differences

n the

world

surrounding

alestinianwomen

today.

From

1919,

when the

first

women's

association

was

founded in

Jerusalem,

ntil

1969

when

the

Resistanceorganizations

ained power

in the Palestine

LiberationOrgani-

zation, Palestinianwomen had never had the backing of a nationalor

governmental

uthority

nor had theyfaced the

responsibilitieshat

this

backing nevitably

ntails.

The

earlier roupswere

lmost ntirelypolitical,

except

for one small

Marxist

roup, nd they dealt

withalien governments

imposing

policy

inimical

o

menand women alike.

Since

1969, however,

Palestinian

women

have

been

represented

by

the

General Union

of

Palestinian

Women

(al-Ittihad

al-'Am

lil-Mara

al-Filastiniya),

n

official

section

of

the PLO, whose

executive

members epresent

he

variouspolitical

organizationshat

make

up

the PLO.

The seconddifference

omes

from

he

significantpread of education.M. Mogannamconsiders hat the British

Mandatory overnment

ailed

utterly o

provide nyeducation

forgirls, ut

since 1948 there

hasbeenan increasing

umber fgirlswho receive

t least

a

basic

education,

s

the

followingUNRWA statistics

how.6 In

1950-51,the

first ear

for

which

figures re available,

11,110 girls ttended

lementary

school,constituting

6.5 percent

f theelementary

chool body.During

he

school year 1976-77

the

figure

ad risen o 108,692

(48.1 percent).No

girls

attendedpreparatory

chool

until

1953-54,

when

62

students

onstituted

4

Ibid.,

p. 74.

5

Ibid.,

p. 95.

6

UNRWA-Unesco

Department

f Education,StatisticalYearbook

1976-77 (Beirut,1978),

No.

13,

pp. 35, 68,

80, 93.




4/21

28

JOURNAL

OF PALESTINE

STUDIES

6.5 percent

f

the total. In 1976-77 the numberwas 38,187 (45.9 percent).

The percentage

uccess

in

the preparatory ycle examinationwas 85.9

percent, lightly igher han forthe boys (84.3 percent).UNRWAhas not

run secondary

chools

since

1961,

but

there are

some

figures

or

refugee

enrolmentn state schools: 56 girls n 1955-56, 12,445 in 1976-77. In some

cases these last figures re an estimate; hey do not, in any case, include

figures or Kuwait,whereuntilrecently he PLO ran ts own schools,nor of

course,do they apply to any Palestinians xceptthoseregistereds refugees

qualifying or ducational id, but t seems afeto assume hatthey re more

than parallelled y the

children

f

the

more

fortunate. ersonal xperience

suggests hat since 1948 virtually 00 percent f the daughters f the urban

middle nd upperclasseshavebeenexpected to complete econdary chool

atthe east.

In their

daily

lives Palestinian

women

suffer rom

he social

harassment

and

legal

discrimination

mposed

on their

isters

n

every

Arab

country.

he

laws, imposed by several countries hat have signed the UN Charterof

Human Rights, re: (a) the "honour" aw provisions hich

n

effect ondone

the

murder f a

woman

by

her

husbandor

any

male related o

her

f

she

is

suspected r accused of illicitrelationswitha man; b) the divorce aws; c)

theShari'alaw of inheritance hich utomaticallyccordsthe largesthare

to

men; d)

the

law which

forbids

womanto

travel

utside

he frontiers

f

her

countrywithout written ermission romher husband

or

other male

guardian.Every country f the Mashriq s guilty f imposing t least one,

and sometimes

ll,

of

these

national

disgraces. he

"honour"

aw has

been

abrogated nce, by

Abdul-Karim

asim

n

Iraq,

but t

was

restored

when

he

regime hanged.

Before

1948,

Palestinian ural

women

enjoyed

the

relative

reedom

f a

mountainous ountry;henecessity fsharingn theworkof the fields reed

them

from

the

veil

and

allowed

them to visit

towns

to sell

agricultural

produce.

But after

he exile

two opposing

rends

ppeared. One,

based on

the

belief

that

their

own

ignorance

had contributed o the

disaster,

was

a

determination

o

acquire

as

much

formal ducationas

possible.

The other

was

a

nostalgic onging

o

preserve

he old

society's

tructuresnd

habits,

which

led to the

metaphysical

esurrection

f the

destroyed illages

nd

urban

neighbourhoods ithin

he chaos of the

refugee amps nd

to a strict

enforcement

f

the

old mores.

In

1967 when

the Resistancemovement

began nJordan,nd in 1969, when t opened up the camps n Lebanon,a

new

idea

began, slowly,

to

percolate:

that

women constitute

half the

available

manpowerresource,

one that a

small,

embattlednation

cannot

afford o waste.

Women

began

to

participate, ublicly,

n

every risis,

rom




5/21

PALESTINIAN WOMEN

29

Wahdatcamp

in

the

1970

Amman

battlesto

the

latest

Israeli nvasion

n

South Lebanon.

No individual an reallybe "typicalof" or "represent" n entire ation,

and the women

n theseconversationsre,as individuals,ery ifferentrom

each other.Theiragesrange

from

2

to 65, their

ackgrounds rom irth

n

exile and

life n a

refugee amp

to the

upper

reaches

f

pre-1948Palestinian

society.All but two have

a universityducation. have deliberately mitted

religious ffiliation,

n

principle.Nor

did

anyone

consider t a decisive

factor, ut

in

the two

caseswhere

eferences avebeen

spontaneously

made

to a

confessional

actor

mpinging

n

their

ivesthese

havebeen eft.This

s

not by any

means a sociological study the only criterion

f

choice

was

active ommitmento the national ause

-

but a reflectionf a strand fthe

Palestinian

xperience.

MAY SAYIGH7

My

motherwas

a

member

f

the

Women's

Union8

and

very

ctiveand

aware politically,

o

my

first ducation

n

the

struggle

ame

from

my

home.

I was born n Gaza and became involved s a child

of nine

when

I joined a

politicalparty, r rather,

he

party oined

me

to them,

s a sortof mascot,

suppose. I went to universityn Egypt nd then

married nd went o live n

Ammanwhere I joined variouspolitical parties.But really was always

lookingforthe resistancend I alwaysbelieved hat

armed truggle as the

only way

to

recover

alestine.

When

Fateh

began

joined it, was trained nd

became

a member

f

its militia.After he

1970

fighting

n

Jordan

came

to

Lebanon

and

I've

been

here ince

then.

I've

never elt hat here's

ny

difference

etween he

struggle

f men

nd

women,

but

men

don't understand he

women's

problem: not a single

political partyhas handled t properly r even

understood ts seriousness

the

parties

don't

even have a

women's section. After enturies f being

treated s second-class itizenswomenhave so many nferiorityomplexes,

they ack

confidence

n

themselves, heyhave no

practice n life, ife n the

outsideworld. They

need to be

gradually repared

o work ide by side with

men

becausewithout

his

preparation hey find

men uperior, nd they ose

heart.One

often sees them

at meetings, eeping

ilent although hey are

7

May Sayigh

s well-known s

a

poet

in the Arabworld. Her first ook,

Iklil

al-Shawk Crown

of

Thorns),

was

published

n

1968.

In

1971,

after he battles

n

Jordan,

he

publishedQasaidManqusba

'ala-Masalat l-Asbrafiya Songs

Engraved

n the

AshrafiyaMemorial).She later published

Qasaid

Hub li-Ismin

Mutarad Love Songsto a Name Pursued)

n 1973 and 'Anal-Dumu'

wal-Farab

l-Ati

On

Tears and Future Joy) in 1975. She is thevice-presidentf the General Union of PalestinianWomen

(GUPW).

8

The Arab PalestinianWomen'sUnion (al-Ittihad

l-Nissa'i l-'Arabi

l-Filastini)was founded n

1921 and stillexists

in

Lebanon

and the occupied

territories.t is independent f the

PLO and the

GUPW.




6/21

30

JOURNAL

OF PALESTINE

STUDIES

burstingwith

ideas,

because

they

are afraid

to

express

themselves.

hey

don't

realize that

they

have been absent for centuries

nd

they ust giveup

andgo back in silenceto theirhomes. You mustn't hink

hat t

s

an insult

to

have a

unionfor

women

s

though

we were

special,

ubhuman

ategory;

you must

remember

hat

t is the

poorwomen

who

suffer.

hroughout

ur

history

he

Arabs

despised

work

nd

left

t

to

the Persians

nd

Turks;

women

werethe

symbol

of their

anity

nd allowed to work ven ess than he

men.

If

Palestinian omen

an

work

now,

this s

because

of

the

exile

and

changing

social attitudes.But

although

ur

womenhad to goto work

fter 948, and

the

man often efthis

family

n

order

o work

abroad,

so

that the children

saw theirmother s breadwinnernd head of the house,still, t takesmore

than

one

generation

o

change

enturies f

social

attitudes.And t also takes

a

lot of structured

ork.

The PLO

Charter alks of

the

equality

f

men

nd

women

nd the elevation f

woman's

role n

the

revolution.

levation

Even

the

word

(tarqia)

is

wrong

nd

suggests

hat

they'regoing o teach her

to

play the piano or do

watercolours r

something qually"elevating" In

fact

neither

quality

nor

elevation ave

been

brought bout andthere s no

single

organizedprogramme o implement.

Abu Ammar Yasser

Arafat)

thinks

women

should

go

to the bases and

fight nd live

there,but he

doesn't

understand

hat we havedifficultyust

gettingwomen to

leave theirhomes

alone in broad daylight.One can't ump

several tages ust

like that, t's as

mistaken n idea

as keeping

women ocked

up at home. Ifshe goes to

the

bases

she'll

be

considered

prostitute.

remember henwestarted oing

o

the

camps

n

Jordan,

n

1967-68,

all

the

men

used to greet

us

by lining he

streets nd

chanting,

ronically, Here come the feda'iya."

First of all we

need legal

equality,

o

that a

man can be imprisoned or

divorcing iswife

just because

she's a militant, r for beating

her because

she has oined the

Women's

Union. Of

course

want women to

go to thebases,but they

must

do

it

in

their

thousands,

ot as

exceptional

ndividuals.

A

vanguard hat

s

too far n advanceof thegeneral xperiencewill

only delaythe advance of

the

whole;

the

woman

who

goes

to the

bases

now

onlybuilds wall

between

herself

nd the others.One

can't really alkof a general

ituation,

ecause

it's different

n

every one of

the countries

wherePalestinians ive

in

Lebanon,

for

nstance,

ttitudes

ave

changed

ince

the civilwar.

In Palestinian iterature he

mother

has

always

been

the

symbol,

nd

played

the

role,

of

the land:

strong, rotective.

he

son leaves

and

returns,

she

is

there,

he

recurring rotection.

And

it

is

a

fact that

the

Palestinian

womandies very young. Over the age of fortymen outlive the women,

unlike

what

is

found

in

most other societies. This

is

simply

because

the

women

re

worn

out,

overworked

nd exhausted

hysically

nd

emotionally.

But

the

younger

writers

nd

poets,

like

Khalid

Abu-Khalid,

ahia Badawi




7/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN

31

and

others,

now depict two

facesof woman:

the

strongmother,

hehome

and the

land,

who encourages

erson to

fight,nd

the young

woman,

he

beloved, who is herself fighternd activein the struggle. heseare new

depictions

f woman:

to

be

lovedshe

has to fight

ctively

or her

country;

the

mother

s no longer

ustgenerous,

making

offee

nd baking read,

but

has become

the

strong ne

who celebrates

er on's

death n battle

by

songs

and who goes

side by side

withhim

through

he

nights f terror.

n my

own

poems

I tryand

emphasize

that I am

a woman,

although

don't feel

a

second-class

itizen

t all. I feel

the Palestine

ause is

mine

and

the work

s

mine.

The GUPW is hewinga road through.rock o changethe positionof

women,

to

help

them to

live their wn

livesand

to

depend

on

themselves

economically.

There are threecategories

n the camps: women

with

arge

families nd

conventional usbandswhodo

not allow them

outof the

house;

the Union

s

very

nterested

n this category

ndconsidershat

t

s

there

o

serve

them

n

particular.

hen

there re

women

who can leave

theirhomes

and

move about

in the camp and

finally hose

who leave the camp

and

become cadres

nd

instructors. he

most emancipated

women

are the

ones

whose

children

re

grownup,

and the

unmarried. here's no

birth ontrol

programmen the camps because women want to replace the heavy

Palestinian

osses.

Before he

civil

war

we

offerediteracy

lasses

hree imes

week,

which

were

open

to

women

of all

ages.

Their

men

were

opposed

to this nd we

had

to

persuade

hem ne.by

one. The women

hemselves

ere

very

hesitant

nd

we

used to

persuade

hem

oo to

spend

at least an

hour

week

earning

ow

to read

and

write

n order to

understand he political

situation

and to

encourage

heir

hildren o

participate

n

the

work

of

the

Resistance.

When

things etbad and a warbreaksout thewomenrush o classesbecause they

feel enthusiastic nd

the

husbands

don't stand

in their

way

during

hese

times.

We've

opened

kindergartens

n mostof the

camps (not

all,

because

we

lack the

money)

and supply

the

teacherswe've

trained

nd draw

up

the

programmes.

e've

also

opened

a

couple

in

Syria,

but the

need

there s

less

urgent

ecause

the

state

runsfree

kindergartens

tself.

n additionwe

train

women

to do traditional

Palestinian mbroidery

o thatthey

can

earn

a

living t home. Altogetherwe'vetrained bout 5,000 in the variousUnion

centres nd

have organized

ravelling

xhibitions

o

sell

their

work

n the

Gulf

nd other

Arab

countries,

nd

in

Europe

through

olidarity

ommittees.

We

hold

political

meetings

n

the

camps

to

explain

current

vents

and




8/21

32 JOURNAL

OF

PALESTINE

STUDIES

problems.We don't

have a regular

ublication ut have

publishedbooks,9

postersand pamphlets.

Then there's

the foreign elations

ectionwhich

receives omen's elegations,rganizesonferencesere ndsendsdelegations

abroad.

We have links with Afro-Asian

women's

federations nd

are a

member

f the Women's nternationalemocratic

ederation.

The

Union-run

chool,

Beit Atfal

l-Sumud,"

was

not n

our

programme,

but

was

a debt

we

had

to

pay

to

the

mothers

who died

n Tell

Zaatar.

We're

trying o honour

heirmemory y creating

new ife n theface

of attempts

to eliminatehe Palestinians.

FATMEH

We're fromQiryatShaab near

Acre but

I was bornafter he

exile,

in

Anjar. Later we moved

to Burj Shemali,

nearTyre,because

the Armenians

didn't

want

us

to

stay

in

Anjar,although hey

had come to

it

as

refugees

themselves.'" Finallywe moved

to Tell Zaatar

becausemy father ound

a

job

in one of thefactories here.

We were tenchildren, lus

my father

nd

mother; he

restof the

family tayed n Palestine,

ut myfather ad

fought

in the resistance n

1948 and it was too dangerous

for

him to stay.My

brotherOmarwas

born

during

he

exodus,

n

an

olive

grove, nd laterpeople

sent my mother sprig of the olive tree

under which he was born,

n

Palestine, nd she kept it and used to showit to us. At firstifewas very

difficult

n

the

camp,

the

rain used to

sweep

the

tents way

and

we

slept

n

the

mud and

in summer

here

was

no

water.

We used to say

"in

winter

we

drown

and in summer we burn." As children

we

always oined

in

the

demonstrations

n

May

1512

and after he

1967 war

my

youngest

rother,

who

was

13,

went to

Syria

and

joined Saiqa.

Then after the battle

of

Karameh

n

1968

Omar eft o

join

Fateh

and

after he

Resistance pened

up

the

camps

I also

joined

and learnthow to maintain

nd

handleweapons

nd

received irst-aid

rainingt a

clinic.

My father

ried o forbidme to do

this

and beat me becauseby this time he had lostheart n thestruggle nd the

hardness

f the years

had discouragedhim.

But my mother et me

go.

I

joined

the GUPW

andwentto itstraining amp

ocated nsideTell Zaatar

o

that

the

girls

ould

train

by day

and

return

o

theirhomes t night. hen

n

9

Including

Tell Zaatar

al-Shabeed wal-Shabid

Beirut,1977)

and Marie-Rose

Bulos,

Shabada

min

Jirab l-Watan

Beirut, 974).

1OThe

Home of

the Children

f

Steadfastness"

was set up after he 1976

siege

and massacre

of

Tell Zaatar

to providean

emotional and psychologicalhaven

for

Palestinian

nd Lebanese

children

whose familieshad been killed. It has expandedsincethe civilwar to accomodate 120 children, ut

financial

roblems

revent t

from ccepting

ll the

dozens ofapplicants.

1I

Anjar

s a

town

n central

Lebanon

largelynhabited

y Armenians

whofled from

Turkey

n the

1920's.

12

Thedate of the

establishment

f Israel.




9/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN

33

the May 1973 fightingn Beirut,forthe first ime I slept for a week

awayfrommy family ecause we were so busy collecting ood and

keeping

the fightersupplied. When returnedmy fatherwas beside himselfwith

rage: the neighbours ad spent their ime telling

him

"Aha Your daughter

showsno respect

for

you

"

I

used

to tell them, But why? Othergirlsgo

out to

work

in

factories

or as

servants,why

shouldn't one

work

n

the

Resistance?

I find

that people

have

changed lot

since

then. During he

Tell Zaatar

siege everyone

worked nd no one

stopped

his

daughter

ecause

everybody

elt

hreatened y

the

danger

nd the

neighboursouldn'tgossip

because all the

women mothers, aughters,

ives

nd

sisters

all

worked.

And the

most traditional

women's

work,fetching

he

water,

was often he

mostdangerous womenwerekilledwhiledoing hisnight fter ight.

At

the

very

start

of

the

war

my

brother

was

killed n the bus on

April

13.13

He

was 17

and

studying

or

his

baccalaureate

t a

Catholic

chool

in

Ashrafiya.

And

it

was

strange,

ut the

priest

who

taught

him

came

to

our

home to offer

ondolences nd

praise

his

memory.My

mother idn't

cry

or

say anything.

had

to go

to the

Qarantinamorgue

o

identify

is

body.

During

he

siege workedwith

the others

making read

for the

fighters

every ight

we

made

200

kilosof

dough.

also worked

n

the hospital,

which

was

very

difficult

ecause

we

ran out of

medical

upplies

nd

only

had

salt

and water o use as a disinfectant.We made candlesout of a hugeblock of

wax

that we

found

n

a

factory,

nd as

long

as

therewas

water

we

washed

the

bandages,

but after hat

we

collected

heets

from

very

house and used

them.

he situationwas terrible. yniece,whowasnine, ied n thebig helter

that was

bombed,

where

o

manywere

killed. And

my sister ave birth

n

the

steps

of this

helter;

herewas

no room

below.People

remembered

948

and

said,

"We

won't

go.

This

s

not

our home

but we'll die wherewe are,we

won't

move

yet again."

So

when

a

manwas killedthe womenused to bury

him n

the house, underthe earthfloor. n the end the men weredead and

thewomenbore arms.When hecampfellmyfather efused o go down to

Dekwaneh and give

himself

up to the Phalangists; e went off by the

mountain road (which led to areas held by the Lebanese allies of the

Palestinians) nd

died on

the way. My motherhad to go to Dekwaneh

because

she

had the five smallest hildrenwithher the eldestwas eight.

She put them nto one of the lorries hat were evacuating s, but when he

tried

to geton

herself

hedriver aid therewas no more room. Finally he

reached he

Museum the

crossover

oint

n

the dividedcity) and there he

waited.

The children ever ame.

Later

he

heard hat

four f

themhad died

suffocated nderthe crushof bodies in the lorry nd that Sonia, who was

13

The

incident

which

marked

the formal

beginning

f the Lebanese

civil war,

whenPhalangists

ambushed

busload

of

Palestinians

eturning

o their

amp.




10/21

34

JOURNAL

OF PALESTINE

STUDIES

four,

had

scrambled ut

of the

lorry,

aying

he

couldn't

breathe,

nd had

disappeared.

We never aw her

again. stayed

n the

camp hospital

with

he

doctors nd wounded nd the stench.When he ChamounistsndPhalangists

came

they

killed

some of the

wounded

on the

spot;

otherswerecarried

ut

on stretchers. ater Dr. Abdul-Aziz nd we nursesfollowed

s

hostages.

On

the

path

down we

passed

the stretchersnd saw

the

slaughtered

ounded,

many

of

them

mutilated.

he

Phalangistsegan

rguing,

ome

wanted

o

kill

us

on

thespot,

others o take

us offfor

questioning.

t last

they

ook

us

to

a Lebanese

Red Crossoffice nd then somewhere

lse to be

questioned

nd

held.

We were

saved

by

an International ed

Cross

ar that

passed

by;

there

was a

girl

n it who knew us from he

hospital

nd she nsisted n

taking

s

withher. reached he ArabUniversityt midnight,

aving

eftTell Zaatar

at

10:30

in the

morning,

nd there meta comradewhotold me

my

family

was

alright which

wasn't

true,

but he wanted o comfort

me)

and who

gave

me the

key

to

his

apartment. went

here nd fell

down

and

slept.Now

my

mother

ives in

Burj

Shemali

and

I

stayed

n

Beirut nd

worked

first

t

registering

he

children

f all

who

died

and then

n

the school the

GUPW

et

up

for hem nd then

married.

'm

27 now and in

charge fsuppliesfor he

orphans'

chool,

Beit Atfal l-Sumud.

I thinkthat at least half of the new generation as changed n their

attitude

o women. The

Resistance nly

came to thecamps n

1969, it's

not

yet

10

years, and the

road is

very ong. If a

woman doesn't even

work

outside

the

home, how can she

work n

the

revolution?She has to

persist

and

persuade

her

family,

ut

thingshave changed

lready, n less than

10

years.

JUMANA14

I'm from

Haifa but I

was born n Libya

wheremyfather

went to

work

and I came to Lebanonwhen was six. In 1969, when I was at secondary

school, we

began to hearthe news

from

Jordan nd to feel that

even fwe

were

only schoolgirls

we

ought

to

help the

Resistance n some way. So

a

group

of

us

went

to the

GeneralUnion of

Palestinian tudents

GUPS) and

asked them

to

assign

us

some

ob and they

ent us

out putting p

posters,

distributing

eaflets nd so on.

Lateron

I joined Fateh

and gotsome

military

training.My familywere

veryopposed to

my

sleeping way from

home

when

was

sent to

the

South for

a week's

training,

ut things ave

changed

and

now

I

feel

thoroughly

iberatedfrom he

pressures f the

home and

what the neighboursay.Within hemovement feelthe old barriers ave

been

completely wept way

and

that 'm

really reated s an

equal.

14

Pseudonym.




11/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN 35

We

are

used in different

ays ust

because

we're

women;

for

nstance,

we're sent

as

couriersmore

than

men

because

in our

societypeople

are

ess

likelyto search or evensuspecta woman,but I thinkwe should recognize

our situation nd exploit t

for

the time being. We shouldn'tdespise ertain

kinds of work ust because theyhavetraditionallyeen consideredwomen's

work. For example, during he two-yearwar I learnedthe importance

f

social work, nd how

essential

t

is forus if

we want people to support he

Palestinian

movement:

ungry

nd abandoned

people won't support s, but

on

the contrary hey'll

blame

us

for

their

ufferings.

n

1975

I used

to visit

the wounded n the Arab

Universityospital,

nd realized hat

the wounded

needmorethan

medical

care, they

need

attention s humanbeings.Once a

wounded woman was brought n; she was terrifiedndkepton sobbing nd

screaming,

What

has it

got

to

do

with

me?

"

I

talked

o

her

bit,

nd at

last

she

showed

me

what

she

was

holding

n her

clenched

fist

a

Lebanese ira

note

and

said,

"I

just

went

out

to

buy bread,what

does it have

to do

with

me? Why

shoot

me?

Now all

my

babies

are alone

in

the

house

and

they

don't

even

know where

am."

She

was

Jewish,

romWadi

Abu-Jamil.15

went

to her house there nd took some food

and

brought

he

elder

hildren

to

the

hospital

o

reassureher

and so

we

got

to

know

her

Jewish eighbours

and

helped

them.

I studied griculturet the AmericanUniversityfBeirut ecause want

to

do extension

work

n

the

South. Samed16

tarted

project

here

nd

put

me in

charge

f

it,

not

so much

to

introducenew

techniques

s to

improve

current

nes.

Of

course,

there

were

some

problems

or

a woman

n

such

a

job

in

that

part

of the

country:

t

first

eople

couldn't

magine hat

his

girl

in

dungarees nd boots was really

n

charge. remember hen he fertilizer

agent

came on

his

first

ppointment,

e

chatted

to

me for a bit

and

then

said: "Well,down to

business

now: where'syour father? But the workers

accepted

me. I

was

very

areful

ow

I

talked

o

them; alwaysrespected he

prideof Arabmen ndnever, or nstance, riticized he foremannany way

in

front f other

men.

One can't ust

shut one's

eyes and go forginghead

regardless;

ne

has

to

take

the

general ituation nto account. I don't feel

being

woman

s

to

be

differentut

I

do bear

certain hings

n

mind

nd

I

do take care. I

think women

are

always responsible

for the

way

a

relationship ith a

man

develops and it

is

up to the woman to define he

way

she

wants

him

to

behave.

When

hear

complaints bout

the

way

some

man

has

talked

or behaved feel

the woman

s

to

blame.

All

my

friends re

men and

they

treat

me

as an

equal.

It's

no

good wearing ight

dresses r

1S A Beirut uarter

hat

ncludes

he Orthodox

ynagogue

nd a

largeJewish

chool.

16

A PLO organization hatwas founded o providework for Resistance rphans

nd disabled n its

factories nd farms.




12/21

36 JOURNAL

OF

PALESTINE

STUDIES

short kirts

nd

giggling

ll the time nd then urning

ound nd complaining

that

men

alk

about

one.

I'm 23

and early astyear

I

married

man

from he

movement.

e

helps

me

in

the

house when

I'm

tired,

but we

don't share the housework

n a

day-to-day

asis. Sometimes

tell him here'sno lunch ooked

or

something

and

he doesn't

nag

and askwhy haven'tdone

the work.His working

ours

are much onger

hanmine our project n

the South was

suspended

fter

he

Israeli

nvasion

n

March

1978)

so it's

only

fair hat should

ook after

he

housework.

And

after

his

baby

is

born

I

may stop

working ltogether

or

three

or fouryears,for financial

s well as social reasons.

There's no point

continuingo workand neglectinghe child f haveto paysomeone lmost

as

much

to

look

after he

child s

I

earn

myself.

ut

I'm

perfectly

ontent

n

my own situation; know

there are many who are not,

but things re

changing. he pendulum

may swingfrom ne extreme o

another nd

this

may be what

we are witnessingight ow,

a reaction o thefreedom f a

few

years ago,

but it's only natural, nd in the

end it will come

to rest n the

centre.

UM SAMIR

My father

new

more

about

the Zionistmovement,ack

in

Haifa

n

the

1920's,

than we

do

now. As

a

child used

to sit up at night nd listen o

him

talking

o his friends

nd ask

questions

nd when I was

eight

r nine

used

to

join

the

demonstrations

n Balfour

Day,

without nderstandingnything.

Then

Izzeddin

Qassam17

came

to the schools to

mobilizeus.

He

found

he

ground prepared

n

Haifa and organized

a group

of schoolgirls nd we

worked

for

him

during

he Revolt.

I

had

some

trainingwith

a rifle

ut

I

never

fought.Mainly

we

prepared

ood and took

it to the

fighters

ecause

the

men couldn't

move around as

freely

s

we could,

and

we

acted

as

couriers nd collectedmoneyforthemovement.My family ncouragedme

because

they

believed

n

the

cause;

n

fact s

long

as

we were nvolved

n

the

struggle

o one

ever

criticized s, althoughwe were

n

our

teens nd roamed

around

quite

freely.

Even

when

I

went

to

a village

didn't know and was

taken

by

a

guide

a man

whom

also

didn't

know

to

the cavesto deliver

a

message,

ven

then

no one

thought

nything

f

it;

on

the contrary,

he

peasantwomen

would saluteyou

if

they

saw you were nthe movement.

t

was

that

political

work

that

opened my

eyes

to the social

problems

f

our

country.

ime and

again we would go

to a house to collectmoney nd

the

womanwould say: "You'll have to come back. I haveto ask myhusband

first."

We

would ask why,

ince

we knew

he had plenty

f money vailable.

17

L

ofthe Palestinian

Revolt,

killed n 1935.




13/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN

37

"Yes,

but

my

money

can

only

be

spent

on

housekeeping,

nd the cause

is

nothing o do

with he

house

and not

my

concern."

In 1947, when he partition lanwas passed at theUN, we established he

Amin

Hospital

n

Haifa

nd

beganworking

ith he Red

Crescent ociety,

n

preparation

or

the war that was

coming. adej Nassar

was the movingpirit

in this and

in

the whole women's

movement.

he

always maintained hata

popular

assisewas

essential f

women were really o

liberate hems'elves;t

could

never e achieved

by

a

fewupper

class

womendoing ocial work.'8

Well,

the war

came. We had

very

ittle

money

n

the Women'sUnion

(al-Ittihadl-Nissa'i).

remember

eused to trainwith

uns n the backyard

f

my

house because it

was

the

biggest pace we

could use free.But although

we trained,we neverused the arms.The situation otworse and worse

lack

of

supplies,

primitiveweapons,snipers,

errorization

f

the civilian

population.

People go

on

now

about the horrors

f

the

civil

war

n

Lebanon,

but

Haifa was

much

worse.

The Zionistsused to

demolish ntire

buildings

withgelignite,

ith ll the people nside,while n Beirut

rocketwrecks

ne

floorbut

leaves the

building

tanding.

here

was a

lot of ndividual ravery

in

Haifa,

I

remember

ome

acts

of

outstandingourage,but

there

was

no

structure,

o

organization;

he

civilians

were

eft

to their wn

resources

nd

the ndividual ighters

cted

on theirown. Then

the Arab armies ook

over

and I took mychildren o Lebanon.Those of us from he Women'sUnion

who

met

up againbegan helping

withthe

refugees.

n

Tyre we

used

to

find

babies washed

up

on

the

seashore.

King

Abdullah

wouldn't allow

us

to

continue

ur

work

n

Jordan

nless

we changedour

name to the Jordanian

Women'sUnion,

so in

1951

we established he Union in Lebanon. Our

largest project

was the orphanage

school in

the mountains, eit

Is'ad

al-Tufula,

which

has

340

children.

There's

no

doubt that

the Resistancehas

improved

he lot of women

since 1969. The Palestinian

used

to

be

much

more

advanced n his own

country nd women wereindependent nd freer hanwomen in Syriaor

Egypt

or

Iraq,

but after

1948

this

changed:

n

the camps the Palestinian

became

ultra-strict,

ven

fanatic,

bout

the

"honour" of

his

women.Perhaps

this was

because

he had

lost

everything

hat

gave

his

life meaning,

nd

"honour"

wasthe onlypossession

emainingo him.

'ABIR19

When

was

20

I

-started

working

s

a

teacher

n

a

village

near

rbid

n

Jordan

wheremy family

had settled

fter

hey

were

driven ut

of Haifa

n

18

Sadej

Nassar

was

the

firstknown

Palestinianwoman

to

marry

man

of

a

different

eligion.

he

edited

the

newspaper

l-Carmel, ctively

upported

the

1930's

Palestinian

Revolt

nd was

imprisoned

by

the British.

he

died in

exile

in the

1970's.

19 Pseudonym.




14/21

38 JOURNAL

OF

PALESTINE

STUDIES

1948. My parentswere pretty ackward nd

I led the

ordinary

ifeof

most

girls round

me and

was

brought p

to

marry

nd

stay

t

home,bringing p

the children. ut I was good at school,came out among he top tenstudents

in

Jordan,

nd

decided

to

go

to

university.

hen

myfamily rranged

n

engagement or me; I was young and completely naware socially,but

I

didn't

ike

my

fiancebecause

he

wanted

me to

stop studying

nd leave

the

university.

nd

he

kept

on

trying

o

impose

another

personality

n me.

telling

me

how

to dress nd how to do

my

hair nd this nd

that,

s

though

had no existence f myown.

So I

refused

o

marry

im

nd

went

o court o

get the

contract20

nnulled

n

the

grounds

hat

I

was

being

forced

nto

it.

When I became a

teacher

met

otherswho were

members f the Baath

party, nd one colleague in particular,who was in the Arab Nationalist

Movement,

ad a

great

nfluence

ver

me and

taught

me

about

the

political

situation.

became

strongly ro-Abdul-Nasser

nd took

part

n

the 1955

demonstrations

gainst

he

Baghdad

Pact and

talkedto

mypupils

s much s

I could

about politics.

After

he

battle

of

Karameh

n

March

1968,

I

joined

Fateh and receivedmilitaryraining. spent

he

battles

f

1970 at a military

base, sleeping

here at that

stage

families

idn't

protest

gainst his.

But

before

t

was

different.

remember nce I

returned

ome

after

0

days

at

a

base, stinking, ilthy, ongingonly for a bath and a change

of clothes,

and myfather aveme themost awful 'colding.Wherehaveyoubeen? In

America or

what?

What

do

you

think

you

are?

What

do you thinkwe

are?

"

And

so

on and

so

on.

He used to

shout at

me

but otherfatherseat

their

daughters,

ocked them

up

and even

threatened o killthem, o I was

lucky. But when the fighting as

on

in

September ll the girls

sed to sleep

away

fromhomebecause t

was too

dangerous

o

come

home

everynight,

o

their

families

had

to

accept

it.

Yet when

the

fighting

nded it was back to

the

old

story,

homebefore

ight

o'clock

at

night.

n October he

Jordanian

secretpolice began their nvestigations

n

Ammanbut they didn't come to

Irbid,which remainedveryrevolutionaryntilthe army anksentered he

town

after

he Jerash

attles

n

thespring

f

1971. Then was arrested nd

questionedbut they didn't find ny armsbecause I had already

buried hem

in

thegarden. supposethey're till here ndone day somefarmer ill find

them.

Then

was demoted nd transferredrom

eachingArabic

iteratureo

secondary

chool

students

nd

sent

to

a

kindergarten.inally

escaped and

went

to

Damascus

which

was

full

of

Palestinians

who

had

fled the battles.

The

PLO

arranged

withthe

Libyan governmento send teachers

o Libya as

we

all needed

work

nd

I

went o

Benghazi.

For

me

thiswas

a

real

exile.

The

Palestinianeacherswere scattered nd unorganized; herewas no real PLO

20

In

Islam

the

engagement

ontracthas the

legal

force

of

marriage, hough

a

girl

s

considered

s

engaged o long as

she lives

n

her parents'home.




15/21

PALESTINIAN WOMEN 39

presence nd people weren't nterestedn the problem.

spent a yearthere

but I

was miserable,eeling

ut

off, n

exile n

an Arab

country.After year

I resigned, eturned o Damascus and then came to Beirut,where got my

higher ducation ertificate

nd rejoinedmyfamilywhohad sold their ouse

in Irbid and moved to

Lebanon. I was in a stateof acute depression ecause

of the events

n

Jordan nd then the

shock

of Libyan

gnorance; couldn't

pull myself ogether.

n 1973 I joined the GUPW

and did hospitalwork

during

he

attacks

on the

camps

n

May. Now

I'm

running Union project

for he bereavedwives

nd

daughters f Tell Zaatar.

In Damour lone there

are

400 families

eaded

by

a

woman

all

the

men

re dead.

Seventy ercent

of these women

are

between

18

and 30

years

old and the average ize

of

a

family s eightpersons.Manyare Lebanese,but all arehelped by the PLO,

which ssumesresponsibility

orthe

dependents

f

anyone

who

dies for he

sake of Palestine,ncluding hose

killed

by the Israelis

n

the South. There

are8,000 widows

nd

fatherless

aughters

rom he

Lebanese

civil

war

lone.

The Union

programme

rainswomen to

earn

their

iving y teaching ewing,

traditional

mbroidery,

ccountancy, yping

nd

secretarialwork, anguages

(English

nd

French)

and social

services.

We

also train

kindergarteneachers.

Last year

I

married

my cousin,who

is

threeyearsyounger han am and

doesn't have a universityducationbuthe is a member fthemovement.

love my

freedom

nd

I've

talked to

him

bout t untilhe understoodwhat

feel.

We've agreed

not

to

have

children, either

f

us

beingveryyoung.

don't

feel can

sit

at

home

ooking

fter n

infant,

ut we

may dopt

a

three-

or

four-year

ld

from

Tell Zaatar.After

ll,

we

got

married o

live

with ach

other,

o

be together,

ot

to

founda

family,

ut

we haven't old

his

family

about this

because

they

never iked

me. His

sister

used to

say,

"She's

a

woman,

not a

girl,"

s

though

sexual

relation

eally

hanges

ne's

essence,

as

though virgin

were a separate pecies

of

humankind. n fact,we didn't

have a weddingpartyor even tell people that we were married; t wasn't

their

business. But

his

family

used to

go

on about

me

and tell

me

I

was

preventing

im

from

marrying

ntil

told them, The

truth s that we are

married."

My

mother

was immensely

elieved

because

she

could tell the

neighbours

hat had settled

own

at

last.

All

of

us

women

are

brought p

in

a

certain

way

and this affects

very

one

of

us.

I have

progressive

deas but I

can't

mplement

hem

fully

ecause

of

my upbringing.

can't be too

open

in

discussion

with

menbecause

they

may misinterpret

hat

I

say,

even

though

've

received

militaryraining

nd

foughtn battles. Menare mycomradesbut deep downtheydon't believe

I'm

really

their

equal.

Socially

we haven't

caughtup

with

our

political

development

we're

all

walking

n

an

advanced

political eg

and

dragging

backward

ocial

leg

behind, mpeded

nd

crippled.

'm 36 and I haven't

yet




16/21

40

JOURNAL OF PALESTINE

STUDIES

met a man who

has

really

hakenoff

the

old

conventions

bout

women.

feel

that an Arab woman

has

to

marry

f she

wantsto

live n

society.

We

can't live freelyon our own; even my brother,who's a revolutionary,

wouldn't nd couldn't

accept

mybeing nvolvedwith man, o in this ocial

situationyou

are

forced

o

marry

f

you

want to relax and

be

happy.

One

can't

live

with

someone

in

secret and

if

you

do it

openlyeverybody

lse

changes

n

their

elations oward

you.

And the eaders re

hypocritical

bout

it all. At public meetings hey

talk about

liberating omen but they really

believe,

and

some of them

say

it

openly,

that a

woman

does her revolu-

tionary duty by ironing

her husband's

shirts,cooking

his dinner

and

providing cosy

and restful mbiancefor he warrior.

MONA SAUDI21

I

was

born

n

Amman

n

1945

and

from

he

age

of

12

I was determined

o

go abroad, to

Paris

or

Italy,

o

study rt. started rawinghen,

ut

I

didn't

dare

tell

my father,

nd

I

wanted o

live

broad

because

n

Jordan

here

was

no

art at all then,

ne

was

stifled.

his was myreason,not the

oppression

f

women

that

f

saw

around

me;

from

he time was at

school

I had refused o

accept

this. didn't talk about it but

I

did as

I

saw fit, went

forwalks

by

myself

and

I

drew, althoughmy family hought

his

was an ignoble hing

for womanto do. But actions hange he world urroundings, and after

leftmy younger ister ctually wentto Paris to study

medicinewith my

father's

ermission.

Medicine

When

was

18 I

took

all

my drawings nd

went

to

visit

my

brother n Beirut. here

exhibited t the

Caf6

de

la Presse

and

most of the

drawings

were

sold

and

I

had

enoughmoney

to

buy my

passageby ship

and

I

wentto Paris

without ellingmy parents.When

got

there wrote

very ong philosophical

etter o

my

father bout the

meaning

and

importance

f art

and he

finally ccepted

what

had

done. I

earned

my

keep by working

n

the

Arabic-serviceadio

and

babysitting

nd all the odd

jobs studentsdo and appliedto enterthe sculpture ectionoftheBeaux-

Arts.

Until

went

to

Paris

knew

nothing

f

sculpture,

hich

wasn't

aught

at all

in

Jordan,

but

I

had

always preferred lack-and-white

rawings

o

colour

and when went to

the

Louvre nd saw the Egyptian

nd Sumerian

statues knew hat wanted o do sculpture. heywere bitdoubtful bout

it

at

the

Beaux-Arts,s

I

had

never

ried t, but I sat for heexamination nd

came

third ut of the

300-400 applicants, o they cceptedme. A year nd a

half

aterwhen told myfamily hat was doing culpturehey aid, "Don't

21

Mona

Saudi

is

a

Jordanian

ut

she

has

been more

committed o

the

Palestinian ause than

many

Palestinianwomen. She has

published a collection

of her poems and drawings,Ru ya Ula (First

Visions), Beirut, 1972). English ranslations f some

of

her

poems appeared

n

Women f the Fertile

Crescent,

dited

by

Kamal Boullata

Washington,

979).




17/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN 41

tell father,

he

will

be

appalled,"

because my father s

a religious

eacher

(sheikh)

and

a hajj

and

of

course sculpture s

forbiddenn Islam. So

I told

him t wasabstract culpture ndhad nothingo do with iving orms.

I had

never

been

involved r nterestednpolitics ntil

May 1968

in

Paris

when

I saw how a

popular

movement

tarts and ends.

I saw the

contrast

between

a

city

of

the

future, evolutionary,

live,

and a

city

controlled

y

police.

So

I

began

to think

t

over nd I

thought hat

revolution

hould

be

permanent,

continuous

process,

and

that one should be

in

one's own

country,

n

one's

own

earth,

nd that

t was senseless ora

foreigner

o

be

involved

n

a Parisian

movement.

o in

1968

I

returned o

Jordan.

decided

that the

best

way

to serve he revolution

was to

go

to a refugee amp

and

work withthe

children,

ot to

sit in Amman nd

paint

and

sculpt

martial

subjects.

So

after

greetingmy parents

went to

Baqaa22

where

lived,

off

and

on,

for

ight

months. t was

there hat metthe

Resistance.

I

came

from

bourgeois ackground

nd

knew

ts

outlook and

I

felt hat

the PFLP's politicalanalysis

was genuine nd correct: he

masseswere

the

ones

who

would really

work

and

an Arab

revolutionwas

a

prerequisite

o

solving

he Palestineproblem.

So I

joined them.Armed

truggle

s one form

of

expression

f

political

and revolutionaryhought, ust

as art

s. People

fight

n

order

o

say

something,ust

as

they

paint o do something,nd

one

can't drawa

line betweenthese

forms

f self-expression.

ut mypermanent

work

s

art,

not

fighting,lthough

don't

refuse o

do military ork.

Art

and

literature

nd poetry re

not enoughto support revolution,

owever;

one has to do

other

hings

s

well,

and I did. One of these actions

got me

arrested

n Copenhagen

n

1969

-

I

spenta

month

n

prison here nd

then

was

expelled

but

they

were

ecret

nd I

still an't talk

about

them.

At

any rate,

he work

n

Baqaa

continued ntil

he

children

adproduced

enoughpaintings o

hold

an exhibition

n

the

camp. People

had wantedto

hold it

in Amman ut I said no,

letpeoplecome to the camp

and seewhat t

has produced, why should the camp go to Amman? I went to the

surrounding illages

nd invited he

villagers

o the camp this was

one of

the

first

ontacts

between

Jordanians

nd

Palestinians.

n

1969 we

exhibited

the

paintings

n

Stockholm

nd then

n

Beirut, aris,

Amsterdamnd

Japan.

A book

of these

paintings

was

published

n

1970.23

I

planned

o establish

permanent

telier

n

the

amp

but the

September

massacres ut an end

to all

that.

22

The

biggest

amp

established

fter

he

1967

war,

when

the Israelis

drove out the

refugees

f

the

1948 warfrom he WestBank. Baqaa housed 50,000 people in tents fora year and a halfon the cy

plateaunot

far

fromAmman.

Primitive ousing

unitswere

built

by

the

end of

1968.

23

In Time

of

War: Children

TestifyBeirut)

is a

remarkable

ollection

of

children's aintings

nd

their

ccounts

of

their

experiences

n the

1967

war and

in the refugee amp.

It was published

n

Arabic,

rench

nd English.




18/21

42

JOURNAL

OF PALESTINE

STUDIES

The

Resistancehas changed

women'sposition normously

n the

past

ten

years. n Baqaa

in

1968

most

families

efused

o let their irls o

to training

sessions r even to politicalmeetings ecause it was all so new andstartling.

Even the

fighters hought

t a

disgrace

to allow theirsistersto

attend

meetings. he

PFLP treated

me

at the

beginning

s a

special

case because at

first was the

onlywoman,but then hey

beganto realize hat otherwomen

could

and

should

join.

The refugeewoman was more

liberated han the

middle class

Ammanwoman

she

reallyworked for the Resistance.

The

same is true

n

Lebanon

now

-

there

re lots of

girls

n

the

training

amps

and fighting

n

Shiyah

and in the South. But women

have to be aware

of

what theywantfor hemselves

it's actions

hatbreak hemold,not

words.

It's not

enough

o be "liberated," ne hasto be productives well.

In

1972

I

left the PFLP, took up sculpture gain and

went abroadand

exhibited

n

Paris,

ecause I couldn'treturn o Amman

where verything

ad

changed nd I hated

Beirut. But

finally

came back to

live n Beirut nd

taught

rt in the

camps

and

worked

on

my own,

and lateras an

illustrator

for Filastin

al-Thawra.24

Fateh

is

important

because it's a wide-based

nationalmovement,

ot a

political party.

haven't changed my political

ideas

and I haven't

been asked to.

Anyway,

t's

really he PLO that

I work

fornow. I'm in charge fthe PlasticArts ection the onlywomanrunning

a

department

n

the PLO. Palestinian rtistsare

so

separated

from

one

another,

hey

ive n differentountriesnd therehas

never

een

any

coming

together,

ny pooling

of ideas

or

work

n common.

Every

one

works lone,

as

much

as

he or

she

can, according

o

his or her

solated

bility. think hat

we

must

bring ogether

ll these

potentialities

nd

give

hem he

encourage-

ment

they

need. Most

of

the

best work

that

has been

done in the

Arab

world

has been about

Palestine,

here's

great upport

nd

solidaritymong

artists.

We started

our

activitieswith

an

internationalxhibition,

o which

artists nd galleries rom ll overthe world contributed orks. hadhoped

to

interest bout

50

painters

nd

got

200.

There

was tremendous nthusiasm

for our

plan

to

establish

Palestinianmuseumof modern

rt and we

were

given 00

paintingsnd

sculptures.With his ubstantial

ucleuswe want

o

found

a museum,which

for

the

moment will have to be in Beirut,

but

ultimately

n

Palestine. n

January 979 we held an exhibition

f posters

nd

are

collecting

ll the

posters

produced

on

Palestine o

keep in our archives

and at the

end of

the

year

we will

hold

an exhibition f

Palestinian ainters

in

Moscow.

We

want

to help all Palestinian rtists, herever

hey re, o

that

they on'tfeel bandoned nd alone. A first tep s to publish ooks on their

work; he

first

o

appear

will

be on

the Moscow exhibition,

second

on the

24

A PLO weekly

publishedn

Beirut.




19/21

PALESTINIAN

WOMEN 43

naif

painter

rom

Tell Zaatar,

brahim

Ghannam,

nd

a third n artists

n

the

occupied

territories.

FAHIMEH25

Six years

ago, when

I was a student,my

family

used

to

object

very

strongly

hen

I took part

n

demonstrations,

ut

their

pposition

ot

worn

down

bit

by

bit because

they

were really only worried

bout what

the

neighbours

would say.

And

theneighbours

ere

given

o

many

ubjects

of

conversation,

irstby

my joining

in

demonstrations,

hen by my

being

wounded,

hen arrested,

hat at

last my family ave

up and

now

they

don't

worry

when

sleep

away

fromhome.Also

I'm

financially

ndependent

ow

and

if could

find

cheap place I

would ive

on

my

own.

I first

ecame

involved

n

the

women's

question

n

1974,when

bout 50

girl

tudents,who

were

semi-involved

n

politics,

began

to work

on

it with

the help

and encouragement

f Dar al-Fan.26

But

when

thecivil

war

broke

out in 1975

they

decided

that ocial

problems

were

not mportant

nd went

offto fight.

think

this was

a mistake

nd that the

women's

problem

s

inextricably

elated to everything

lse

that's wrong.

For

instance,

n

a

poorer

suburb

of Beirut

ike

Shiyah

girls

were forbidden

o

join in the

struggle,implybecause they weregirls,

not

for

anypolitical

reasons.)

At

any

rate,

t the

beginning

f the civilwarwe

tried o bringwomen

ogether

to discuss

the

problem,

but this

failed.

The

war

was very

difficultor

me

because I was living

n

Ras

Beirut nd working

nd sleeping

n

Shiyah

nd I

couldn'tstudy

things

r think

clearly.

There

was danger

nd

fightingnd

confusion.

was fighting

n

a

small

Trotskyist

rganization,

nd the

men

n

it

tried o

push

me

forward:

Why

re

you sitting

assive?

It's yourproblem,

not ours."

After

ne

yearof war

Shiyahwas

virtually

mpty,

heonly

girls

there

were

fighters

who

had left theirfamilies,

ut

who

had

acted

as

individuals,

ot as

part

of a

larger

ocial

transformation.

concentrated

n

political

problems

ut this was a mistake. he women'sproblems the most

difficult

ne

facing

s

and

it's so difficulthat

one

gives

up

because

one feels

that all

the

efforts

ne

makes are

useless,

heycollapse

under he

nertia

ll

round.We

once tried

to

do something bout

birth

ontrol

got

films rom

the

UN

familyplanning

ffice nd a

woman doctor

to

give

explanations.

Some

of the.

women

agreed

hat

they

wereworn

out

-

"God damn

all these

children"

but

most

were frightened

hat

the pillwould

harm hem

r that

their

usbands

would

change

oward

hem.

f

I

could I would found

sort

of

popular

club cum

social centre for women

in

a poor

quarter nd

teach

hygiene,

iteracy,

olitics,

nd

so

on,

but unless

nehasa big organizationo

25

Pseudonym.

26

A

cultural

lub

in

Beirut.




20/21

44 JOURNAL

OF

PALESTINE

STUDIES

back one it's impossible.And in the political rganizations

hey

don'tthink

about the situation

f

women, hey're

nly

nterestedn

recruiting

omen

s

members ortheirrespective rganizations.till,one ofthe first teps s for

girls o become politicized,

ecause then

heygraduallytart hinking

bout

their ituation s

women.

When

he

Israelis nvaded

he South

n

March1978,

my organizationent

me to

runa military ase there.They began

by appointingme assistant

o

the

man

responsible

for the base and that made

the

introduction asier

because

the

men

got

used

to

me

giving

rders.

hey

werevery

iberated ut

all

the

same I was surprisedwhen they

accepted me so easily perhaps

t

helped that it was nightwhen I firstarrived and I couldn't see the

expressionsn

their

faces.

I was

in

charge f the base

for en days,

ssigning

guard duties,

organizingupplies,reconnoitring

he terrain, nd so

on. At

first was

frightened

f

theresponsibility,

ut I forcedmyself o do

more

than really ould,

to

provemyself,

ecause I knowthat

fa

woman

doesn't

show

herselfmore

capable

and braver han

others,

o

one

willrespect

her.

liked the time

in

the South

so much

and was greatly

ncouragedby my

success.

In

Shiyah

the

men

are

verypetit-bourgeois

nd macho

and

find t

very

difficult

o

accept

a

woman

over

them.Whenever gave

an

order o

a

manI knewhe wouldgo homeand brood about it all night,ven f hesaid

nothing.

But

in

the South

it

was

different.

lso what

helped was that

we

were

small

groups,

never more thanfifteen nd

usually ess,

which

wasn't

enough

or

ocial attitudes

o

harden.

And I

was

careful

bout my

behaviour.

For instance,

f

someone

made a

joke

I would laugh a little,not too

much,

because

men take

these

trivia

seriously

nd

might

think was

laughing

because

I

liked the man who

had

told the

oke.

So

my aughter

was

always

balanced

and

held

in

rein,

and I

would

never

greet

n

acquaintance

too

warmly,

nd all the

other

ittledetails hatmatter.

ome of the

other irls

n

theSouthwouldexaggerate bit and then therewouldbe trouble; ne has

to take

care and

remember

hat attitudes

re

deeply

ingrainedhowever

progressivehe political

deasmaybe. Whenmy organization

ppointedme

theysent anotherwoman

to

the

base withme. They

didn't want me to go

alone. But there

were quite

a

few women

fightingn the South I

know

that

he

Popular

Front

for

the

Liberation

f

PalestinePFLP) had

five here

and I heard here

were

others.

I'm

a

Palestinian,

rom

Acre,

but I work

with

a

Lebanese organization

because I

wanted

to

fight,

ot sit

in

an office. n

1973,

when

I

was

17,

I

joined a PFLP workcampbut all that happened was that I got myhands

calloused iggingnd then

returned

o

university.

didn'twantto play

at it

and to boast

of

having

wo

fighting on two fronts conversations with palestinian women

Documents