We exist, play sports, and will persist: everyday lives of Palestinian sportswomen through the lens of the ‘politics of invisibility’

Abstract

From Nakba to the present, Palestinian women have either been invisibilized by the denial of their existence, homeland, and culture or visibilized through the lens of politics, in which case they are portrayed as backward, victims, and/or terrorists. This paper shines light into the everyday lives of Palestinian young women playing sport in the context of a heavily politicized, militarized, and restrictive colonial occupation. Based on fieldwork and interviews carried out with Palestinian sportswomen living in the Occupied Palestinian Territories during the period of 2014-2015, this paper examines Palestinian sportswomen’s responses to the question-what is the role and meaning of sport in your life? By interpreting sportswomen’s responses through Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s critical feminist methodology on the ‘politics of invisibility’, this paper draws attention to the (in)visible hardships Palestinian women encounter in their everyday sporting lives and how the women in this study mobilize sport to counter the personal and societal impacts of living under occupation.