Women and Conflict in the Middle East: Palestinian Refugees and the Response to Violence
The life of refugees is one of many hardships and difficulties, having to face the daily struggle for survival their lives are exacerbated by numerous factors. In Maria Holt's book she analyses how violence is the principle factor which worsens the hardship of Palestinian women in refugee camps. Palestinians have faced the world's longest refugee experiences in history and Holt uses her experience with refugees, particularly in camps in Lebanon and the West Bank, to examine the issues that women in these situations face.
Holt explains how the Palestinian experience has uniquely impacted women and their suffering at the hands of the occupation and war has had a significant bearing on their lives. Holt interviewed an array of women across the West Bank and Lebanon in various refugees camps to investigate how they experience violence and how they respond to it. She asks how women's definition of violence differs to that of men and how they protect themselves from many forms of violence. One of the most interesting issues she analyses is the different types of violence, not only does she discuss domestic violence, but she looks at the violence of forced displacement by the 1948 Nakba, the violence of the occupation of Palestine and the violence of living in Lebanon as the "other".
In her work, Holt recognises that religious identity takes on a more prominent role and, for some women, has become a form of "protest and self-assertion". During their interviews, the women explained that they have various ways of responding to violence, but for a majority of the women she interviewed their priorities focus on caring for their families, building homes and ultimately returning to Palestine once the occupation is over. Holt concludes that the women "narrate their own story"; they have resilience and a passionate "determination to return to their homeland".
Her "research confirms that refugee women have been significantly disadvantaged by violence. While it is a worldwide phenomenon, the particular case study of Palestinian women reveals a complex picture of victimization." The stories Holt recounts are not entirely bleak, although most paint a picture of hardship Holt is right to conclude that they are resilient and that the women are determined to overcome their lives as refugees. In one quote from subject Umm Muhammad she sums up their resolution by saying that even if she were offered the opportunity to have the whole of Lebanon it would not be "equal to one Palestinian olive".
Maria Holt's book is a useful exploration of gender issues in the Palestinian conflict and magnifies how the conflict and refugee experience has ultimately impacted women. An analysis of gender studies is an important method for the analysis of any experience; in this case it shows how women continue to bear the brunt of an ongoing trauma.
