Strategies Against Patriarchy: Sexualized Political Activism of Palestinian Israeli Women on Campus

Based on a study of Palestinian Israeli women student activists, non-western models are used for negotiating patriarchy. The public nature and visibility of activism brings these women face-to-face with patriarchal conceptions of sexuality, forcing them to struggle against them in order to continue their political activities. The article explores how Palestinian Israeli women students develop a multiplicity of strategies, based on liberal participation and the power invested in sexuality by Arab-Islamic culture, to construct new enabling identities. By creating innovative sexual performances, they conflate their political and sexual struggles on the liberal basis of equality and rights. In the Arab context of communal interest in and control of women's sexuality, usurping one's sexuality goes far beyond merely participating in a liberal sexual contract. Rather, the centrality of sexuality makes liberal struggles around sexuality a powerful way of challenging patriarchy.