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This book focuses on the central party apparatus of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), the Democratic Front (DF) branches established in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Jordan in the 1970s, and the most influential and innovative of the DF women's organizations: the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action Committees in the occupied territories. Until now, no study of a Palestinian political organization has so thoroughly engaged with internal gender histories. In addition, no other work attempts to systematically compare branches in different regional locations to explain those differences. Students of gender and Middle East studies, especially those with a specialty in Palestinian studies, will find this work to be of critical importance. This book will also be of great interest to those working on political protest movements and factional ties.

Over the course of the twentieth century, most Middle East states adopted a shari'a-based system for recognizing marriages. Partly in reaction to these dynamics, new types of marriage that evade the control of the state and religious authorities have emerged. These marriages allow for men and women to engage in sexual relationships, but do not require that they register the marriage with the state, that they live together, or that the man be financially responsible for the wife or household. In Consuming Desires, Frances Hasso explores the extent to which these new relationship forms are used and to what ends, as well as the legal and cultural responses to such innovations. She outlines what is at stake for the various groups—the state, religious leaders, opposition groups, young people, men and women of different classes and locations, and feminist organizations—in arguments for and against these relationship forms.

This dissertation explores the relationship between nationalism and feminism by focusing on the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Palestinian Federation of Women's Action Committees (PFWAC) in the Occupied Territories. The study is based on over 150 interviews conducted in 1989 and 1995 (including 56 longitudinal re-interviews), documents, participant observation, and secondary sources. The dissertation addresses why the DFLP in the territories included a large proportion of women at the leadership and membership levels, concluding that the DFLP's commitment to non-military grassroots mobilization made it particularly attractive to women. DFLP cadres also assumed that Palestinians had to prove they were \"modern\" to be \"worthy\" of self-determination; women leaders symbolized this modernity. Also addressed is why Palestinian leftist-nationalists were convinced that modernity was a pre-requisite for national self-determination. In part, the answer lies in hegemonic narratives that portrayed Palestinian society as atavistic and uncivilized, and therefore undeserving of self-determination. One Palestinian and Arab response was a self-blame narrative that attributed the loss of Palestine in 1948 and 1967 to \"backwardness.\" The dissertation also explores why most Palestinian women were regulated in public space and disenfranchised from the nationalist project during the uprising in the territories. To some extent, the very strength of women's presence in the public sphere threatened the gender order, leading to a systematic reassertion of male power. In addition, in an international context where affairs of state are almost exclusively the concerns of men, de-marginalization required the de-feminization of Palestinian politics. Finally, the dissertation examines whether PFWAC nationalist-feminist mobilization had any long-term effects on the gender consciousness of working-class women. Based on 1989 interviews and 1995 re-interviews, most former PFWAC members demonstrated strong feminist sentiments, largely attributable to PFWAC affiliation, but believed they could not always act on them given social constraints. Thus, while participation in the combined nationalist-feminist PFWAC project led to a feminist consciousness for many women, exploring this consciousness requires disaggregating what subaltern women want from what they are able to accomplish and examining the non-dramatic ways they change their lives.

The essays in this collection examine issues of gender, family, and law in the Middle East and South Asia. In particular, the authors address the impact of colonialism on law, family, and gender relations; the role of religious politics in writing family law and the implications for gender relations; and the tension between international standards emerging from UN conferences and conventions and various nationalist projects. Employing the frame of globalization, the authors highlight how local and global forces interact and influence the experience and actions of people who engage with the law. By virtue of a \"south-south\" comparison of two quite similar and culturally linked regions, contributors avoid positing \"the West\" as a modern telos. Drawing upon the fields of anthropology, history, sociology, and law, this volume offers a wide-ranging exploration of the complicated history of jurisprudence with regard to family and gender.