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The wave of reaction spreading across the Arab world - spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, now the most powerful Arab state in the area — has had a profound effect on the struggle of women in these countries for their liberation. The reintroduction of archaic laws based on Islamic practices threatens to reverse completely those tottering steps which have been taken in the direction of freeing Arab women from the prison of the veil and 'Alard'- the concept of family honour.
However, quite contrary trends were apparent among Palestinian women whom we met on a recent visit to Lebanon. The traumatic situation resulting from their expulsion from their homeland and an almost continuous state of war has presented men and women in the Palestinian diaspora with problems that could only be tackled by partially relaxing the traditional restrictions on female participation in public life. The necessity of mobilising the whole of Palestinian society in the struggle against Zionism has resulted in a degree of women's self-organisation and female involvement in political and military affairs ing the position of women in that section of the Arab world known as the Palestinian diaspora.
In our discussions with Palestinian women we raised many of the issues which occupy the Europcan women's movement, as well as the specific problems faced by Arab women. However, it soon became clear that questions which appear straightforward in Britain take on a very different significance in the context of the Palestinian diaspora. An interesting case in point is the prevailing attitude towards contraception and abortion. We were told that both are available, but their use is discouraged because stress is placed on the need for large families. In fact, contraception is viewed as part of a general health education programme; a way of producing healthy children at planned intervals, rather than as part of a woman's right to control her own fertility.
The average Palestinian family is large — seven to ten children is common - and of course many of the social and religious weapon for the Palestinians — perhaps the most powerful weapon they presently possess in their struggle against Zionism This is recognised not only by the Palestinians but by the Israelis. The Zionist establishment, when not denying the existence of the Palestinian people, has constantly asserted that they can casily be absorbed into the surrounding Arab countries. However, Israel's real concerns, as distinct from its public attitudes, were dramatically revealed not so long ago with the publication of the Koenig Memorandum'. This confidential report to the Isracli Ministry of the Interior outlined in eloquent and unashamedly racist terms the fear with which the Israeli state views the growth-rate of the Palestinian population.
Thus it is the struggle against Zionist expansionism and resistance to national destruction in the diaspora which provide the context for examining attitudes to contraception. The reactionary dangers inherent in this situation are obvious, and are recognised by leaders of the General Union of Palestinian Women. Nevertheless, practical as well as political reasons make it difficult to see any alternative to
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Photo: RUTH CHALLIS International Women's Day poster stuck up in a Beirut street.. the course being followed at the moment: the right to choose in principle, but discouragement in practice. After the genocidal attack unleashed by the Jordanian regime in "Black September' 1970, and the massacres of the Lebanese civil war, the importance of demography for the Palestinian Resistance cannot be stressed too strongly.
So the structure and role of the family is of no mean importance for Palestinian women, most of whom will devote their lives to child-bearing and rearing. Again the family has acquired a unique significance in the Palestinian case, being onc of the few social institutions to survive intact the dispersal of the population after 1948 and 1967. It was largely the family which served to reproduce the Palestinian identity and preserve national consciousness among the refugees wherever they settled. Family ties and obligations were further strengthened by the tendency for whole villages to settle together in the camps along with their traditional leaders, thus perpetuating traditional, patriarchal relationships. However, these relationships began to be croded - particularly after the 1967 war and again after the start of the Lebanese civil war - by the rapid mass politicisation and the beginning of armed struggle. One example of this process of erosion can be seen in the transference of authority in the refugee camps from the old village elders to the military commanders. The onset of the civil war in Lebanon greatly accelerated this process. Familial influence in general, and parental authority in particular, collapsed as young girls volunteered for military, para military and medical service, while the older women began the social mobilisation in the camps necessary to resist the attacks of the fascist forces.
We were naturally anxious to discuss the extent to which women were able to play a full military role, both in the civil war and in the struggle for the liberation of Palestine. As a representative from the General DISTA 4-4 3-9 1 1 MINCI Union of Palestinian Women pointed out, the woman fidayi guerilla fighter has become a symbol for revolutionaries all over the world. In fact women comprise only about 5 per cent of the fedayeen (literally, 'those who sacrifice themselves"). But this low figure disguises the extent to which many thousands of women are trained and ready to fight. Indeed, during the civil war they took part side by side with men in the militias, and a women's brigade was even formed.
as usual this participation of women was not achieved without a struggle. We were told that many husbands and fathers (a Palestinian woman remains a man's daughter until she becomes a man's wife) were derisory or fearful of this new phenomenon. One woman described one of the ways in which resistance from the men was overcome. When a woman volunteered, she would at first go out on patrol as a first-aid nurse; then she would gradually move into the areas where the fighting was taking place, with a first-aid kit over one shoulder and a rifle over the other: and finally she would as part of the militia.
Significant for the future in this respect is the training given to Palestinian youth in the refugee camps. Girls and boys are given exactly the same instruction in. for example, unarmed combat or the expert use of a machine-gun. The children train together, with instructors of both sexes.
We were also warned, by the same woman who spoke of the symbolic significance of the woman fidayi, not to underestimate the importance of the back-up services provided by those who do not carry a gun. Conservative pressures remain heavy, and participation in direct political or military activity usually ends when a woman becomes engaged or married. For this reason the more mundane work carried out by the GUPW in the fields of education, political propaganda, child-care and so on, during periods both of relative peace and full- scale war, deserve some attention.
The Lebanese civil war provoked a flowering of self-organisation in the refugee camps, and it was in the traditional domain of home and neighbourhood that the politicisation of thousands of women developed and proved crucial. In almost every street a small clinic was set up. hundreds of women were trained in firstaid, and para-medical teams were organised. A committee was formed by the women in each camp to take responsibility for the bomb-shelters, keeping them structurally sound, ensuring that everyone got under cover when the enemy attacked. and taking shelter themselves only when these tasks were complete. Women were organised to manufacture thousands of shects for the Red Crescent hospitals and to make military uniforms. They also made themselves responsible for preparing food for the militias, since there were no adéquate provisions. Women who could not leave their homes for some reason would cook food in their own houses which would then be taken to the soldiers, maybe only a few yards away. Children were cared for collectively. and the allocation of the pitifully small rations was also organised by committees of women in the camps.
Of course, the tasks outlined above are certainly an extension of women's traditional role, and do not indicate any breakdown of the sexual division of labour; but two factors must be taken into account. Firstly, the experience of active participation in a revolutionary struggle provided an unprecedented self-confidence and sense of worth and usefulness for many Palestinian women. The exigencies of war broke down the hitherto rigid social barriers between the sexes and brought women into public life in a way which had been forbidden by Islamic custom. The second factor is the existence within the Palestinian Resistance of women, organised in the General Union of
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Palestinian Women, who are determined to analyse and fight the causes of their oppression and to secure the gains which have been made at so much cost.
The women we met were in no doubt as to the root cause of their sexual, class and national oppression. Recognition of an enemy as strong as imperialism, coupled with Arab reaction, had led, however, not to despair but to a realistic assessment of the length of the road still to be travelled and of the kinds of tasks appropriate to the present level of development of the struggle. Great importance is attached to education at all levels. The GUPW has carried out extensive literacy campaigns and has attempted to combat the prevailing notion that a boy's education must come before a girl's. Workshops have been organised to provide employment for women, creche facilities exist on a very limited scale, and campaigns have been launched against the super-exploitation of Palestinian women at work.
The launching of armed struggle was the crucible within which the Palestinian nation reconstituted itself, but centuries of the most complete oppression were reflected in the attitudes towards women which prevailed in the Resistance which emerged after June 1967. Without attempting a theorisation of the present position of women within the Palestinian diaspora, this article has tried to convey one person's impressions of life in the refugee camps, to outline some of the problems and some of the victories, and most of all to pay tribute to the heroism of the Palestinian women currently engaged in activities as diverse as guerilla warfare and teaching other women to read and write. Palestinian girl takes a break from training. Photo: RUTH CHALLIS