article

Women, the Hajab and the Intifada

MERIP Middle East report • 20 (164/165) • Published In 1990 • Pages: 24-28, 71

By: Hammami, Rema.

Abstract
This is an account of the campaign during the Intifada to impose on all Gaza women the wearing of the HAJIB, or headscarf. Identified with peasant women, the HAJIB was largely dispensed with by a growing educated, urban, and petit bourgeois class of Palestinian women, beginning in the 1950s. In the late 1970s, Hamas revived it use as a sign of piety and political affiliation. In 1988, one year into the intifada, HAMAS waged a campaign to make all women wear the HAJIB, in some cases violently enforced by male youth. When the campaign spread to the West Bank, women resisted and the attacks increased. The Unified National Leadership realized the campaign was too divisive and stepped in to condemn the attacks as unpatriotic and instead praised women's role in the national movement.
Subjects
Special garments
Gender status
Political movements
Religious offenses
Revolution
culture
Palestinians
HRAF PubDate
2005
Region
Middle East
Sub Region
Middle East
Document Type
article
Evaluation
Creator Type
Ethnologist
Document Rating
4: Excellent Secondary Data
5: Excellent Primary Data
Analyst
Ian Skoggard ; 2004
Field Date
no date
Coverage Date
1948-1990
Coverage Place
Gaza, Occupied Territories, Israel
Notes
Rema Hammami
Includes bibliographical references
LCCN
87641135
LCSH
Palestinian Arabs