A gendered movement for liberation: Hamas's women's movement and nation building in contemporary Palestine

Abstract

This research on Hamas's women's movement explains the contemporary political and social involvement of women with a multilayered perspective of different theories based on a textual analysis of the movement's publications (the Hamas Charta 1988 and the Electoral Program 2006, as well as women's testimonies to popular media outlets). Subsequently, it is claimed that only a comprehensive combination of post-colonial studies, gender and nationalism studies can fully grasp women's roles within the Hamas movement. Uniting these three approaches, there are three main hypotheses for women's activism and role within Hamas. First, Hamas propagates gendered worldviews and roles within the nationalist project as well as within the movement. Those outlooks intersect with historized notions of Arab–Muslim identity as well as with notions of liberation against foreign (Western) occupation and colonialism. Second, the ‘women of Hamas’ use such gendered roles in order to pave the way for a pious, yet determined, women's participation within the nationalist venture as well as the movement's overall project of national liberation. Third, the gendered defence calculus springing from those views allows a restructuring of society in general, vis-à-vis the Palestinian population as well as vis-à-vis the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.