Palestinian women,the intifada and the state of independence

On the impact of the intifada on Palestinian women, see Rita Giacaman and Penny Johnson, 'Building barricades and breaking barriers', in Zachary Lockman and Joel Beinin (eds), Intifada: the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation (London, 1989).

On the history of the women's committees movement, see Islah Jad, 'From salons to popular committees', in Jamal R. Nasser and Roger Heacock (eds), Intifada: Palestine at the crossroads (New York, 1990), and Islah Abdul Jawwad, 'The evolution of the political role of the Palestinian women's movement in the uprising', in Michael C. Hudson (ed.), The Palestinians: new directions (Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, 1990).

These are the Palestinian Women's Committees for Social Work, the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, the Union of Working Women's Committees and the Women's Action Committees. They are allied, respectively, to the four main nationalist factions that make up the PLO - Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Palestinian People's (formerly Communist) Party and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

I would like to thank Jenny Bourne, Iatimad Mohanna, Rema Hammami and Ros Young for their help with this interview.

For an account of the hijab campaign in Gaza, see Rema Hammami, 'Women, the hijab and the intifada', Middle East Report (May-August 1990).