Articulating the new freedom

Abstract

With changes in the economy, education and the family opening up to them the world outside the home, and the political drama drawing them in as responsible actors, Palestinian women are well on the road to ‘liberation’ compared with their mothers, or women in many other Arab countries. The progress already made in this direction implies changes in the perception of women and in gender power relations, the sum of which is that women are accepted as being capable of functioning in the world outside the home. Implicitly, it is being conceded that they have the power to control their own sexuality; the assumptions that they are vulnerable to every man and that they will spread havoc wherever they go are dying. The absolute right of men to control them has been overthrown. With these perceptions of their own abilities and rights, women have collectively gained self-confidence.