“No Free Homeland Without Free Women:” Tal’at's Indigenous Feminist Movement

Abstract

On September 3, 2019, Israa Ghrayeb, a 21-year-old woman was murdered by her family. Soon after, on September 26, 2019, thousands of protestors took to the streets throughout 12 cities including Jerusalem, Ramallah, Rafah, and Haifa. The protests were organized by the Indigenous Palestinian feminist movement, Tal’at. Tal’at is translated literally from Arabic as “stepping out” and is semantically translated as “rising up.” It's slogan “No Free Homeland without Free Women” encapsulates the movement's assertion that national liberation and feminist liberation must be fought together. The femicide of Israa Ghrayeb mobilized Palestinian feminists to call for an end to gender-based violence, for legal accountability, and collective liberation. Palestinian women are faced with the intersecting oppression of both Palestinian patriarchal norms as well the Zionist military occupation and apartheid system. This paper examines the emergence and influence of Tal’at and its concurrent resistance to patriarchy and Zionist settler colonialism. It is ultimately a call to action for feminist social workers to act in solidarity with Tal’at's struggle for feminist, queer, and national justice and liberation.