Report: Bowers and Fuchs, Women and Parents in the Labor Market

Bowers, Liora and Hadas Fuchs. “Women and Parents in the Labor Market – Israel and the OECD.” Policy Brief, Taub Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, March 2016.

 

URL: http://taubcenter.org.il/wp-content/files_mf/womenandparents_eng.pdf (PDF)

 

Abstract
This brief examines Israeli women’s labor market outcomes and how maternity and parental leave laws in the country compare with those in the OECD. In recent decades, there has been an increase in employment rates among women – particularly among mothers with young children. With regard to payment rate and length of paid leave over a woman’s lifetime, Israel performs better than or similar to other OECD countries. However, there is a gap between Israel and the OECD when it comes to leave benefits for fathers and the design of parental leave benefits.

New Article: Arar & Shapira, Interplay between Belief Systems, Educational Management and Gender

Arar, Khalid, and Tamar Shapira. “Hijab and Principalship: The Interplay between Belief Systems, Educational Management and Gender among Arab Muslim Women in Israel.” Gender and Education (early view; online first).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1124070

 

Abstract

This paper discusses the decision of Muslim female principals in Israel to don the hijab following their appointment to school principalship. This research employed narrative life-story interviews to understand the women’s decision to alter their appearance and how this transition is connected to their role as female school principals in the indigenous Muslim community in Israel and the reaction they faced both in personal and professional spheres. The principals’ narratives elucidate that transition to wearing the hijab was a matter of choice and collective belonging; it empowers them and affected their leadership style, although it also provokes others’ resistance and reactions. Findings clarify the social and personal identity of Arab Muslim women school principals in Israel, and point to the need for consideration of traditional cultural contexts, to enrich managerial theory. This understanding also supports the argument that governmental and organizational policies and initiatives should recognize the diversity in Muslim women’s backgrounds and the dangers of privileging mainstream women’s perspectives.

 

 

 

New Article: Lahav, What Do Secular-Believer Women in Israel Believe in?

Lahav, Hagar. “What Do Secular-Believer Women in Israel Believe in?” Journal of Contemporary Religion 31.1 (2016): 17-34.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537903.2016.1109866

 

Extract

Secular-believers, who constitute about 25% of Israeli Jews, are self-identified secular people who believe in some kind of divinity. Based on in-depth interviews with secular-believer women, this study aims to reveal their theological assumptions and claims. It examines metaphors and images participants used to relate to the divine as well as the theological categories they emphasized. The study uncovers the pluralistic nature of secular-believers’ beliefs and the common tendency to address faith-related content in a positive light.

 

 

 

New Article: Segal-Engelchin et al, Early Marriage Perspectives of Engaged and Married Muslim Women in Israel

Segal-Engelchin, Dorit, Efrat Huss, and Najlaa Massry. “The Experience of Early Marriage Perspectives of Engaged and Married Muslim Women in Israel.” Journal of Adolescent Research (2015).

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0743558415605167

 

Abstract

The negative impact of early marriage on girls’ psychosocial well-being is well documented in the literature, but little is known about the girls’ motivations and experiences within marriage. A phenomenological case study approach, combining artwork and semi-structured interviews, was used to investigate the motivations and experiences of early marriage among 10 engaged and married young Muslim women who married young in Israel. The findings regarding the engaged women point to their decision to use marriage as a way to fulfill their need for freedom, their wish to experience love in a culturally respectable frame, and to escape from poverty and from difficult family. Conversely, the married women’s narratives point to the heavy price and limited benefits of early marriage, in creating intense new problems and not providing relief from former problems. The regret over having not studied, intense loneliness, lack of money, and the search for a more respect-based marriage are predominant themes. The financial and social motivations for marriage found among the women studied suggest that in their decision to marry young, they were not passive victims of love or society but were rather taking an active pragmatic decision within the very limited options open to them.

 

 

New Article: Moore, Israeli Women—Changes and Their Consequences

Moore, Dahlia. “Israeli Women—Changes and Their Consequences.” In Psychology of Gender Through the Lens of Culture. Theories and Applications (ed. Saba Safdar, Natasza Kosakowska-Berezecka; New York: Springer, 2015), 113-46.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14005-6_7

 

Abstract
Structural, macrolevel factors (e.g., education level, the degree of sex-segregation in the labor market, availability of child-care facilities, tax exemptions for working mothers or dual-worker families, and other measures of industrialization) should be included in the analysis of changes in the lives of women as they contribute to our understanding of differences among societies. The impact of these macrolevel changes is not uniform across all groups and categories within societies. In order for these changes to be effective and change society, a supportive—humanistic and/or egalitarian—ideology is necessary. However, egalitarian and equal-worth ideals are not spread evenly. In Israel, as in all western societies, some segments maintain more traditional beliefs concerning the social roles of men and women and the division of labor between them, while others are more egalitarian. The main cultural areas in which changes may have occurred and are examined in this chapter include self-attribution of traits and locus of control, gender identities, the gendered division of labor, perceptions of family and work roles, and stereotypes against women. This chapter examines these issues in the diverse Israeli society.

 

New Article: Halperin et al, The Influence of Childbirth on PPD: A Comparison between Israeli Jewish and Arab Women

Halperin, Ofra, Orly Sarid, and Julie Cwikel. “The Influence of Childbirth Experiences on Women׳s Postpartum Traumatic Stress Symptoms: A Comparison between Israeli Jewish and Arab Women.” Midwifery 31.6 (2015): 625-32.

 
 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.midw.2015.02.011

 

Abstract

Background

childbirth is a positive experience for most women yet some women express distress after birth. Traumatic experience can sometimes cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in relation to childbirth. Prevalence of traumatic birth experience and PTSD after childbirth differs between cultures.

Objectives

to examine the subjective recall of childbirth experiences and PTSD symptoms of Israeli Jewish and Arab women; to examine comparatively the prevalence of PTSD symptoms six to eight weeks after childbirth and to establish the factors that predict PTSD symptoms.

Methods

a prospective study was conducted in a region characterised by wide variations in ethnocultural groups. The study was comprised of two time points: Time 1 (T1) interviews were conducted at the bedside of the women in the maternity ward of each hospital 24–48 hours after childbirth. Time 2 (T2), all 171 women participating in T1 were interviewed by phone six to eight weeks after childbirth.

Findings

34 women (19.9%) reported their labour as traumatic 24–48 hours after birth (T1), and six to eight weeks later (T2) 67 women (39.2%) assessed their experience as traumatic. More Arab women (69.6%) than Jewish women (56.5%) had a positive memory of childbirth, but this difference only approached statistical significance (p=.09). Results showed rather low frequencies of PTSD symptoms, and no ethnic difference. PTSD symptoms were significantly and positively predicted by subjective recollection of childbirth experience (Time 2). PTSD symptoms were higher for women who did not have a vaginal birth, and more women with PTSD symptoms were not breast feeding.

Conclusions

we found more similarities than differences between Arab and Jewish women׳s experience of their births and no differences between them on the prevalence of PTSD symptoms after birth. The results suggest that non-vaginal birth (instrumental or caesarean section) and negative recollection of the childbirth experience are important factors related to the development of PTSD symptoms after birth, and that women with PTSD symptoms are less likely to breast feed.

New Article: Gueta & Chen, Discourse Analysis of Israeli Women Offenders

Gueta, Keren, and Gila Chen. “‘I Wanted to Rebel, But There They Hit Me Even Harder’: Discourse Analysis of Israeli Women Offenders’ Accounts of Their Pathways to Substance Abuse and Crime.” International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (early view; online first).

 
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0306624X15595421

 

Abstract

This study examined women offenders’ accounts of their pathways to substance abuse and crime and the intersection between them, to reach a holistic understanding that captures the dynamics of victimization, agency, and gender. Discourse analyses of the accounts of 11 Israeli women offenders indicated differential use of two discourses. Five participants used the victimization discourse, which viewed substance abuse as an attempt to medicate the self that was injured following victimization experiences; two used the agency discourse, which viewed substance abuse as a way to experience pleasure, leisure, and control over their destiny. Four of the participants used these two contradictory discourses simultaneously. The findings indicate the absence of a cultural discourse that encompasses women’s complex experience of gender, victimization, and agency. Possible implications for intervention are discussed.

 

 

New Article: Tzivian et al, Death of Companion Dogs and Stress in Healthy Israeli Women

Tzivian, Lilian, Michael Friger, and Talma Kushnir. “The Death and Owning of the Companion Dog: Association between Resource Loss and Stress in Healthy Israeli Women.” Journal of Veterinary Behavior 10.3 (2015): 223-30.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2015.01.005

 

Abstract

Dog owners often regard their dogs as family members that provide companionship and feelings of security and of being loved. The loss of a dog may be experienced as a stressful life event and lead to bereavement. The aim of this study was to explore the contribution of a Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to the understanding of the effects pet dogs might have on their healthy adult owners’ stress. We performed a cross-sectional study of 110 current dog owners and 103 bereaved owners, all females. Veterinarians from 48 private clinics from central Israel referred the researchers to owners who euthanized their pet dogs in 1-month period. The control group included owners who had lived with the dogs for more than 2 years. Based on the COR theory, 2 new instruments to measure resource losses and gains of owners were assembled. The level of stress was assessed by the Perceived Stress and the Somatic Complaints scales. Stress was stronger for bereaved owners (statistically significant). In multivariate regression, for current owners, the factors correlated with stress were: number of cigarettes, performing or not performing sports activity in previous 2 weeks, and dog-related losses. For bereaved owners, the factors that correlated with stress were number of cigarettes and losses owing to a dog’s death. The findings of the study supported the hypothesis that stress among bereaved owners is higher than that among the current owners. It seems that the death of a dog is a stressful life event.

New Article: Lahad and Shoshana, Singlehood in Treatment

Lahad, Kinneret, and Avi Shoshana. “Singlehood in Treatment: Interrogating the Discursive Alliance between Postfeminism and Therapeutic Culture.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 22.3 (2015): 334-49.

 
 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350506815580398

 

Abstract

This article offers a critical discourse analysis of the Israeli television series In Treatment. The series unfolds the therapy sessions of a 40-year-old single female attorney with her therapist. The main objective of the study was to identify the scripted tactics or narrative strategies that establish and maintain singlehood. The findings indicate that the therapeutic discourse plays a central role in the construction and interpretation of single women’s subjectivities, prompting a narrative that encourages the ‘discarding’ of singlehood as well as therapeutic work slanted towards a more familial and maternally oriented subjectivity. This narrative unfolds through two dominant scripted tactics: the symbolic annihilation of singlehood and the construction of feminine identity hierarchies (what the authors term ‘hierarchies of happy endings’). Moreover, it is also prompted by the discursive alliance between the therapeutic discourse and the postfeminist discourse. Consequently, long-term singlehood is portrayed as an unnatural and pathological life script characterized by its lack and deficiency. Furthermore, as opposed to childless singlehood, single motherhood by choice emerges as a preferred and desirable life option. The category of single motherhood is endowed with new forms of legitimacy, reinforcing new-old patriarchal and postfeminist conceptions of women’s reproductive potential and what is considered to be women’s primary life purpose.

 
 
 

New Article: Gueta & Addad, Long-Term Recovery of Former Drug-Dependent Israeli Women

Gueta, Keren, and Moshe Addad. “A House of Cards: The Long-Term Recovery Experience of Former Drug-Dependent Israeli Women.” Women’s Studies International Forum 48 (2015): 18-28.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2014.10.003

 

Abstract

While previous studies on recovery from drug addiction have tended to focus on recovery initiation and treatment issues among men, the primary purpose of this study is to shed light on the experience of long-term recovery among women. For this purpose, we employed qualitative methods and interviewed nine long-term (two to seven years) recovering women. Additionally, we monitored five women for two years of the recovery process in a dual research track (a total of 24 interviews). The research findings indicate that developing recovery capital, including self-awareness, stress-coping strategies, and various social resources (Granfield & Cloud, 1999), can be part of an effective strategy for overcoming long-term recovery challenges while financial difficulties, intrusive memories, motherhood and inability to find leisure activities may hinder it. These results indicate the need to reconsider gender-sensitive therapies in order to help women to not only initiate, but also maintain recovery.

New Article: Stolovy et al, Experience of Israeli Women Who Practice Channeling

Stolovy, Tali, Rachel Lev-Wiesel, and Zvi Eisikovits. “Dissociation and the Experience of Channeling: Narratives of Israeli Women Who Practice Channeling.” International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 63.3 (2015): 346-64.

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207144.2015.1031555

Abstract
“Channeling” is a phenomenon in which people describe themselves as receiving messages from another personality or dimension of reality. Channeling is often regarded as dissociation, which is a disruption in the usually integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, or perception. This study explored the interface between channeling and dissociation through a phenomenological analysis. Qualitative data were obtained through interviews with 20 Israeli women who practice channeling. The analysis revealed 3 themes: dissociation, absorption, and control. The channelers’ descriptions correspond with what is coined as “dissociative states” and enable an emic view of the etic definition of dissociation.

New Article: Tadmor-Shimony, Women Immigrant Teachers in 1950s Israel

Tadmor-Shimony, Tali. “Women Immigrant Teachers and State Formation in Israel, 1948–1959.” Journal of Women’s History 26.3 (2014): 81-104.

URL:http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_womens_history/v026/26.3.tadmor-shimony.html

Abstract

This article discusses the phenomenon of women immigrant teachers during the 1950s in Israel, an issue which incorporates several research topics: migration, gender, and teaching. It asks whether the popular saying: “Teaching is women’s work,” was true in regard to Israel during this time period. In order to do so, this article examines the choices and actions of those women, all of whom were trying to cope with their new situation and to integrate successfully into the host society. A large portion of women immigrant teachers found jobs in immigrant villages and development towns. From an educational point of view, these women were not the strongest link in the pedagogical chain, and yet they were asked to assist in the formation of a new society. By doing so, they chose to become agents of acculturation and carried out leadership functions; they became empowered, and quickly shed their weak, immigrant women status.

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New Book: Fuchs, Israeli Feminist Scholarship

Fuchs, Esther, ed. Israeli Feminist Scholarship. Gender, Zionism, and Difference. Austin, TX : University of Texas Press, 2014.

More than a dozen scholars give voice to cutting-edge postcolonial trends (from ecofeminism to gender identity in family life) that question traditional approaches to Zionism while highlighting nationalism as the core issue of Israeli feminist scholarship today.

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction. Israeli Feminist Scholarship: Gender, Zionism, and Difference

Esther Fuchs

Chapter One. The Evolution of Critical Paradigms in Israeli Feminist Scholarship: A Theoretical Model

Esther Fuchs

Chapter Two. Politicizing Masculinities: Shahada and Haganah

Sheila H. Katz

Chapter Three. The Double or Multiple Image of the New Hebrew Woman

Margalit Shilo

Chapter Four. The Heroism of Hannah Senesz: An Exercise in Creating Collective National Memory in the State of Israel

Judith T. Baumel

Chapter Five. The Feminisation of Stigma in the Relationship Between Israelis and Shoah Survivors

Ronit Lentin

Chapter Six. Gendering Military Service in the Israel Defense Forces

Dafna N. Izraeli

Chapter Seven. The Halachic Trap: Marriage and Family Life

Ruth Halperin-Kaddari

Chapter Eight. Motherhood as a National Mission: The Construction of Womanhood in the Legal Discourse in Israel

Nitza Berkovitch

Chapter Nine. No Home at Home: Women’s Fiction vs. Zionist Practice

Yaffah Berlovitz

Chapter Ten. Wasteland Revisited: An Ecofeminist Strategy

Hannah Naveh

Chapter Eleven. Tensions in Israeli Feminism: The Mizrahi-Ashkenazi Rift

Henriette Dahan-Kalev

Chapter Twelve. Scholarship, Identity, and Power: Mizrahi Women in Israel

Pnina Motzafi-Haller

Chapter Thirteen. Reexamining Femicide: Breaking the Silence and Crossing “Scientific” Borders

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Chapter Fourteen. The Construction of Lesbianism as Nonissue in Israel

Erella Shadmi

Chapter Fifteen. From Gender to Genders: Feminists Read Women’s Locations in Israeli Society

Hanna Herzog

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Index

 

Purchase from publisher: https://utpress.utexas.edu/index.php/books/fucisr

New Article: Aharoni, Implementing Security Council Resolution 1325 in Israel

Aharoni, Sarai B. “Internal Variation in Norm Localization: Implementing Security Council Resolution 1325 in Israel.” Social Politics 21.1 (2014): 1-25.

 

URL: http://sp.oxfordjournals.org/content/21/1/1

DOI: 10.1093/sp/jxu003

 

Abstract

The article explores the localization process of Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1325 (Women, Peace and Security) in Israel after the Second Intifada. An analysis of four forms of interpretation developed in 2000–2010 by local and international actors: protest, political dialog, legal reforms, and transformative actions, reveals a selective localization pattern that goes far beyond conflict-related women’s rights. This variation was linked to the nature of interactions between civil society organizations and governmental agencies and could be explained by two national-level factors: (i) despite the escalation of political violence the State of Israel continued to develop national machineries promoting gender equality for women citizens, a process that minimized state dependency on international mechanisms; (ii) by using the universal language of SCR 1325 to construct, redefine, and reinforce domestic identities and interests, governmental agencies and women’s groups were in fact seeking new forms of political legitimacy. I argue that the normative language of SCR 1325 proved to be especially beneficial on the civil society level, enabling women’s organizations to survive the generally unfavorable domestic opportunity structure during the Second Intifada. However, traditional state-centered policies and perceptions of women’s political participation remain a determining factor in explaining their effectiveness and success.

New Article: Harris, Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict

Harris, Rachel S. “Parallel Lives: Palestinian, Druze, and Jewish Women in Recent Israeli Cinema on the Conflict: Free Zone, Syrian Bride, and Lemon Tree.” Shofar 32.1 (2013): 79-102.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v032/32.1.harris.html

Abstract

Free Zone (Amos Gitai, 2005); The Lemon Tree (Eran Riklis, 2008) and Syrian Bride (Eran Riklis, 2004), explore the Arab-Israeli conflict through women’s experience of the political and military stalemate. In presenting Palestinian, Druze, and Israeli women, these filmmakers attempt to contrast and compare women’s shared encounters, including their experience of patriarchy. While the characters may come from diametrically opposed sides, their experiences as women occlude their political differences. In these films, women are foregrounded within the plot, and have agency over their actions if not their situations. Rejecting the masculine frame that has governed representations of the conflict, these filmmakers demonstrate a new kind of approach in Israeli film that considers feminist aesthetics in the construction of character and plot, as well as the treatment of women’s physicality, gaze, territoriality, and agency.

New Article: Singh, Gender, Displacement, and the Challenges of “Homecoming” for Indian Jews in Dimona, 1950s-60s

Singh, Maina Chawla. “‘Where Have You Brought us, Sir?’: Gender, Displacement, and the Challenges of ‘Homecoming’ for Indian Jews in Dimona, 1950s-60s.” Shofar 32.1 (2013): 1-26.

URL: http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/shofar/v032/32.1.singh.html

Abstract

Hundreds of Jews who migrated from India to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s were settled in Israeli development towns. Ironically, many Indian Jews had left bustling urban centers like Bombay, only to be dropped off in dry, dusty, underdeveloped towns in the Negev desert. This article explores the postmigration experience of first-generation Indian Jewish women migrants settled in the town of Dimona, Israel. Drawing upon extensive ethnographic research and personal narratives, this paper analyzes the ramifications of this migration on the social, economic, linguistic, and cultural identities of these women. Highlighting the challenges faced by them as wives, mothers, and members of a labor force, the article underscores the gendered nature of this experience and its impact on the postaliya lives of these Indian Jewish migrants. The article argues that while Indian Jewish communities have successfully created supportive and associational networks across many development towns, Israeli towns like Dimona, which remain largely frozen in time, have also adversely affected the prospects of the second generation born to these Indian Jewish women who made aliya in the 1960s.

Cite: Sienkiewicz, Western intervention and gender in the Palestinian public sphere

Sienkiewicz, Matt. “Here to Help? Western Intervention and Gender in the Palestinian Public Sphere.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 16.4 (2013): 335-350

 

URL: http://ics.sagepub.com/content/16/4/335.abstract

 

Abstract

This article analyzes the impact of western funding projects on the place of women in the mediated Palestinian public sphere. Drawing upon archival evidence, it shows that – in an effort to avoid overt discussion of Israeli occupation – joint projects between foreign funders and outlets such as the Ma’an Network focused on issues of gender ‘conflict’. The article argues that these projects simultaneously played the disturbing role of reaffirming western resistance to the expression of Palestinian experience under occupation while nonetheless playing the laudable role of creating new opportunities for female media figures.

Cite: Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Palestinian Women in Israel

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. “The Grammar of Rights in Colonial Contexts: The Case of Palestinian Women in Israel .” Middle East Law and Governance 4.1 (2012): 106-151.

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URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/melg/2012/00000004/00000001/art00003

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Abstract

This article examines the limitations of human rights activism in a colonial context by invoking the voices, experiences, and insights of Bedouin women living in Israel. Through extensive interviews, Bedouin women living in unrecognized villages in the Naqab/Negev reveal their struggles as unrecognized and “invisible“ members of society. The article explores the ways in which the prevailing “grammar of rights“—the formal and informal mechanisms constructed and maintained by the colonial power to accord or withhold rights—delimits and confines the lives of the women, and also human rights activism. The women’s personal stories are juxtaposed against the legal justifications used to regulate and discriminate against them, as members of the indigenous Palestinian community, within the context of a “fear industry“. The article explores, from the perspective of the interviewed women, the internalization of that culture of fear, where they are constructed as the ones to be feared, and its personal, familial, and communal implications.

The interviewed women offer a critique of the existing human right framework, and question whether a human rights activism operating in a colonial context can be an emancipating force, so long as it is constrained by the regime’s rules. Furthermore, their voices assert that acknowledging historical injustice and its effect on women’s rights is central to re-thinking feminist human rights activism. The article ends by returning to the voices of women living in the unrecognized villages of the Naqab/Negev to investigate whether, and how, feminist politics and human rights activism could operationally function together within the context of Israeli state law. The article concludes that, in order to create a “grammar of rights“ that is based on equality, respect, and dignity, and which challenges the balance of power in colonial contexts, it is essential to fully include the lived experiences and insights of “invisible“ and unrecognized women.

Cite: Abed Rabho, Arab Women Take Complaints to West Jerusalem Muslim Court

Abed Rabho, Laila. “Problems No Longer Solved over a Cup of Coffee: Arab Women Take their Complaints to the West Jerusalem Muslim Court.” Hawwa 10.1-2 (2012): 113-126.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/haw/2012/00000010/F0020001/art00007

Abstract

In the past, women may have been afraid to approach the court because they thought it would harm their family’s reputation and honor. Parents would have also discouraged such a move.

This paper features the stories of fifty-four Palestinian Muslim women who appealed to the sharia court in West Jerusalem during the years 1996-1999. The women came to the courts to claim material support (nafaqa) from their husbands. Women sued their husbands for several reasons, the most prominent being: interference in the couple’s life from the husband’s family, violence on the part the husband, economic hardship, and immoral behaviour of the husband.

Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World

Cite: Geiger, Mizrahi Women Resist

Geiger, Brenda. “Mizrahi Women Resist.” Hawwa 10:1-2 (2012): 97-112.

 

URL: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/brill/haw/2012/00000010/F0020001/art00006

Abstract

Utilizing qualitative semi-structured interviews, this paper examines the resistant strategies and struggles of eight severely abused and deprived Mizrahi women who had been incarcerated for crimes and misdemeanors. A Foucauldian perspective reveals that for these women, crime, drugs, and prostitution were expressions of resistance against extreme states of domination and abuse. Through crime and deviance, these women struggled against socioeconomic deprivation, physical, and sexual abuse and other forms of domination and injustice perpetrated by the family and criminal justice system. In crime, drugs, and prostitution, these women managed to express their will and autonomy. These women’s testimonies may shock and scandalize—yet they break through oppressive norms and traditions that had, so far, been taken for granted. I conclude that poor Mizrahi women’s deviant behaviors must be regarded as avant-garde protests pointing to forward social and normative reforms that are to be incorporated into any model of change addressing the plight of marginalized women.

 

 

Hawwa: Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World