Occupation

Citation:

Vrdoljak, Ana F. 2010. “Women and Private Military and Security Companies.” In War By Contract: Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law and the Regulation of Private Military and Security Companies, edited by Francesco Francioni and Natalino Ronzitti, 1-25. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author: Ana F. Vrdoljack

Abstract:

Lack of clarity about the application of international law norms and inadequacies of existing regulatory regimes covering private military and security companies have reinforced concerns about transparency and accountability in respect of gender-related violence, harassment and discrimination. This chapter focuses on the main issues and legal concerns raised by the impact of the privatisation of war on women, both as PMSC employees and civilians. Part I highlights how armed conflict, civil unrest, occupation and transition have a detrimental effect upon the lives of women with particular reference to safety, displacement, health and economic disadvantage. Part II provides a summary of existing international humanitarian law and human rights provisions relating to women. Part III examines recent developments within the United Nations, the work of the ICRC, and international criminal law jurisprudence shaping these legal norms. Part IV considers the key recommendations of recent international and international initiatives covering PMSCs and women.

Keywords: women, private military and security companies, gender, sexual assault, forced prostitution, human trafficking, sexual harassment, discrimination, international law, International Humanitarian Law, human rights

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Displacement & Migration, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Health, International Law, International Criminal Law, International Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law (IHL), International Organizations, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Private Military & Security, Privatization, Rights, Human Rights, Violence

Year: 2010

Citation:

Berry, Kim. 2003. “The Symbolic Use of Afghan Women in the War on Terror.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 27 (2): 137-160. 

Author: Kim Berry

Abstract:

This article analyzes the critical omissions and misrepresentations that accompanied the Bush administration claims that the war on terror waged in Afghanistan was "also a fight for the rights and dignity of women." The article incorporates the insights of Afghan and U.S. analysts, activists, and journalists, along with feminist theorists of Islam and the politics of representation, in order to problematize this characterization of a liberatory U.S. military action. Without such critical analysis, the article argues that we run the risk of using Afghan women as symbols and pawns in a geopolitical conflict, thereby muting their diverse needs and interests and foreclosing the possibility of contributing to the realization of their self-defined priorities and aspirations.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Men, Gendered Power Relations, Religion, Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Human Security, Terrorism Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia Countries: Afghanistan, United States of America

Year: 2003

Citation:

Hart, Jason. 2008. “Dislocated Masculinity: Adolescence and the Palestinian Nation-in-exile.” Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (1): 64-81.

Author: Jason Hart

Abstract:

Taking as its starting-point emerging discussion about gender and nationalism, this article considers the masculinities constructed by and for adolescent males born into a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan. I consider the relationship of these masculinities to the construction of the camp as a moral and socio-political space. Through the employment of ethnographic material, the article demonstrates the ways in which young males—through the performance of a particular, dominant vision of masculinity termed mukhayyamji—serve to reproduce the camp as authentic location of an exilic national community. The article also examines the implications for individual young men of this interplay between masculine performance and the reproduction of the camp as a moral and socio-political space. It explores the consequences both for those who fail or choose not to uphold the idealized, mukhayyamji adolescent masculinity and for those who evince the skills and qualities that this entails. It is argued that, while the former risk marginalization from the camp as a moral and socio-political community, the latter face marginalization from the economic life of wider Jordanian society and, with that, endanger the transition to social adulthood. Thus, a set of paradoxes emerges for young males that reflects the ambiguous position of the Palestinian refugees in Jordan at a specific moment in the history of Jordan and the Palestinian national struggle.

Keywords: masculinity, adolescence, refugees, Jordan, Palestinian

Topics: Occupation, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Nationalism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Jordan

Year: 2008

Citation:

Greenberg, Ela. 2009. “‘The King of the Streets:’ Hip Hop and the Reclaiming of Masculinity in Jerusalem’s Shu’afat Refugee Camp.” Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication 2 (2): 231-50.

Author: Ela Greenberg

Abstract:

This paper examines G-Town, a Palestinian hip hop crew from Shu‘afat Refugee Camp in Jerusalem. G-Town is part of a worldwide cultural phenomenon in which marginalized youths borrow and adapt African-American hip hop culture to their socio-political contexts. Their ability to convey authenticity as rap artists comes from living in a refugee camp, where they are exposed to drugs, violence, and limited opportunities. While G-Town uses rap music as a vehicle to express their opposition to the Israeli occupation, they also use rap music to reclaim their masculinity, especially as Palestinian masculinity has become increasingly emasculated by the practices of the occupation. With Tupac Shakur as their model, the members of G-Town have created for themselves a hyper form of masculinity as a way of coping with the occupation. Rapping has enabled G-Town to emerge as self-appointed leaders of local camp youth, and through their music, they encourage their mainly male audiences to resist the Israeli occupation, while they criticize those who remain passive and whose masculinity thus becomes questionable. Not all their peers, however, are supportive of rap music, and criticize G-Town for having given up practices traditionally associated with the camp’s notion of masculinity.

Keywords: Jerusalem, Shu'afat Refugee Camp, hip hop, rap, music, youth, masculinity, G-Town, palestine

Topics: Age, Youth, Occupation, Displacement & Migration, Refugees, Refugee/IDP Camps, Gender, Boys, Masculinity/ies, Violence Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Israel

Year: 2009

Citation:

Bornstein, Avram. 2010.“Palestinian Prison Ontologies.” Dialectical Anthropology 34 (4): 459-72.

Author: Avram Bornstein

Abstract:

During the first intifada uprising (1987–1993), thousands of Palestinians were arrested annually, and mass incarceration affected as many as 100,000 families. Relying on several recent ethnographies, and other published research including some of my own, this article describes the contests over Palestinian prison ontology as organized by (a) the jailers, (b) the prisoners, (c) the families of prisoners, and (d) a service agency in the emerging Palestinian Authority. What becomes evident is that mass incarceration involves ontological struggles over the framing of justice, agency, and gender. The conclusion asks how these ontological struggles may be part of other modern prisons.

Keywords: political prisoners, Israel-Palestine, justice, gender, agency

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Occupation, Gender, Men, Masculinity/ies, Justice, Nationalism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2010

Citation:

Lykes, M. Brinton, Ana Caba Mateo, Jacinta Chávez Anay, Ana Laynez Caba, Ubaldo Ruiz, and Joan W. Williams. 1999. “Telling Stories—Rethreading Lives:Community Education, Women’s Development and Social Change Among the Maya Ixil.” International Journal of Leadership in Education: Theory and Practice 2 (3): 207–27.

Authors: M. Brinton Lykes, Ana Caba Mateo, Jacinta Chávez Anay, Ana Laynez Caba, Ubaldo Ruiz, Joan W. Williams

Abstract:

Peace negotiations culminating in accords signed between the Guatemalan government and guerrilla forces (URNG) on 29 December 1996 have ‘ended’ nearly 36 years of war in Guatemala and afforded new spaces in which survivors testify to horrific violence including massacres, military occupation, internal displacement, extreme poverty and exile. In this paper we describe the development of a women's organization in rural Guatemala that was created to respond to some of the psychological, economic and educational consequences of this war. The Association's genesis and current work reflect collaborative processes of interethnic and transnational non-formal education, community organizing and leadership development. While responding directly to social injustices—including centuries of discrimination and marginalization of indigenous peoples—and the multiple effects of war, the Association provides a context wherein rural Maya women are enhancing self- and community-confidence to act on their own behalf in the development of action plans for change within their local community. In this paper we discuss some of our experiences as insiders in a rural area deeply impacted by war, state violence and poverty, and as outsiders who seek to accompany them in constructing peace with justice at a local level. We document some of the challenges experienced in collaborations across multiple differences as well as their contributions to women's development and to their creation of more just and equitable educational programmes for themselves and children in their communities.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Development, Economies, Poverty, Education, Gender, Women, Indigenous, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict, Violence Regions: Americas, Central America Countries: Guatemala

Year: 1999

Citation:

Holt, Maria. 2004. “Palestinian Women Negotiate Violent Conflict.” Al-Raida. 21(103): 26-30.

Author: Maria Holt

Abstract:

On 6 September 2003, Palestinian women in the West Bank town of Tulkarem organized a demonstration of more than 200 Palestinian, Israeli and international women to protest against the Apartheid Wall that is being built by Israel in the occupied territories. Their action should not surprise us as Palestinian women are well known for their active participation in resisting the occupation. Given the severity of their situation, they have little choice but to focus first and foremost on the national struggle. But does this mean that “women’s issues” will inevitably be sidelined? Are such concerns a luxury, to be attended to once the serious business of war is ended? 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Political Participation, Rights, Human Rights Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2004

Citation:

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. 2008. “The Gendered Nature of Education under Siege: A Palestinian Feminist Perspective.” International Journal of Lifelong Education 27 (2): 179–200.

Author: Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Abstract:

Military occupation affects educational space and places, transforming them into politicized, sexed, gendered, and racialized ones. The uncontrolled political violence in conflict zones causes psychological trauma, internal displacement and economic stagnation, and intersect to shape the gendered nature of education. This article is based on data collected from young Palestinian women in the Occupied Palestinian Territories between 2004–2007. Its theoretical background departs from the perspective that women's education in conflict zones is simultaneously a site of empowerment, resistance, and victimization. As such, the article demonstrates that the personal is political, and highlights how education can be both a source of consciousness-raising and a powerful mobilizing force for young women while simultaneously being oppressive in nature. The results show that the covert and overt acts of political violence against Palestinians has transformed Palestinian gender relations in complex, contradictory, and diverse ways while both militarizing and violating their right to education. In addition, the article argues that the study of gender and education requires close attention to women's words and acts in order to identify revolutionary modes of resistance that are capable of promoting social justice. It concludes by arguing that the daily terror facing young women on their way to school, the systematic denial of school permits, and other actions that interfere with their right to obtain an education not only necessitates the re-conceptualization of education conceived as a neutral zone and separated from the politics of the state, but also requires a close scrutiny of the gendered nature of education under siege. 

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Education, Gender, Women, Girls, Gender-Based Violence, Health, Mental Health, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Rights, Violence Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2008

Citation:

Sabatello, Maya. 2005. “Women’s Rite: Gendered Nationalism and Palestinian Female Suicide Bombers.” In . Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, Illinois.

Author: Maya Sabatello

Abstract:

I place Palestinian female suicide bombers in the socio-political discourse on gendered-nationalism, challenge Western explanations for the phenomena by analyzing national narratives, and address the social construct of national identity and Other.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Combatants, Female Combatants, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Gendered Power Relations, Nationalism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 2005

Citation:

Kuttab, Eileen. 1993. “Palestinian Women in the Intifada: Fighting on Two Fronts.” Arab Studies Quarterly 15 (2): 1-69.

Author: Eileen Kuttab

Abstract:

"Focuses on the role of Palestinian women in the Intifada, the first Palestinian mass mobilization and culmination of resistance to the Israeli occupation. Historical overview of Palestinian women's participation in the national struggle; Democratization of the women's movement; Comparative perspective between the `old' and `new' women's movement; Platforms and agendas of the women's committees" (EBSCOhost).

Topics: Armed Conflict, National Liberation Wars, Occupation, Gender, Women, Gender Roles, Nationalism Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Palestine / Occupied Palestinian Territories

Year: 1993